Author Feather Schwartz Foster Returns to Speak at DeWitt Wallace Museum, Colonial Williamsburg

Online, July 31, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Williamsburg author Feather Schwartz Foster will make return engagements at two programs and book signings for her latest book, "The First Ladies: An Intimate Portrait of the Women Who Shaped America." She will appear at the Hennage Auditorium of the DeWitt Wallace Museum in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia on Friday, August 5, and Friday, August 12. The programs will start at 3:30 PM, with book signings to follow.

While most people realize the influence modern First Ladies have on the President, as well as on the presidency, few people today realize the influence, both gentle and overt, that past First Ladies have exerted. Author Feather Schwartz Foster offers a glimpse of those long-ago women in her newest book. Rather than a tome of almanac facts, or an attempt to convert day-to-day accomplishments into political impact, Foster has chosen to portray First Ladies from Martha Washington to Mamie Eisenhower as the individuals they were, with their personalities and influences in perhaps the way their husbands saw them. According to Foster, "It is essential to remember that these women, with few exceptions, did not marry Presidents; they married men, and at an age when the concerns of both partners were on building a home, a family and a life." It is also essential, she added, to remember that the expectations for the "old" First Ladies were far different than they are today.

Mrs. Foster, a New Jersey native and now Williamsburg resident, has spent more than four decades as an independent Presidential scholar, specializing in the "personal" side of the early First Ladies. "The First Ladies" is her fourth book. She is a regular lecturer at both the Christopher Wren Society for William & Mary, and the Lifelong Learning Programs at Christopher Newport University. This event is open to the public if they hold a Colonial Williamsburg ticket or Good Neighbor pass.

For more information about the reading and book signing contact: Feather Schwartz Foster at www.featherfoster.com.