By Gary Cooper
On Wednesday, Oct. 2, from noon to 1 p.m., the New Jersey State Library will present a free lunch-time program, Killing the Poormaster: A Saga of Poverty, Corruption, and Murder in the Great Depression with author Holly Metz.
Killing the Poormaster won the 2013 New Jersey Council on the Arts Book Award. It explores the poormaster’s death and the social and political circumstances that surrounded it. The event brought national attention to the degradation suffered by the jobless and poor. Metz brings to life the poormaster’s mindset, the struggles of the poor, opportunistic politicians and the attorney’s defense.
Quoting a review by Washington Monthly, “Holly Metz deserves tremendous praise for accomplishing the difficult task of evoking the pain and pathos of a long-forgotten incident, and allowing it to illuminate our own problems involving wealth and work and unemployment.”
Holly Metz has written about law, culture and social issues for a broad range of newspapers, journals and magazines, including Preservation magazine, Labor History, Poets & Writers and the New York Times. You can see more about the history of the poormaster as well as the city of Hoboken at www.thepoormaster.com.
All are welcome; RSVP is appreciated. Contact Cindy Warrick at [email protected] or 609-278-2640 ext. 172.
About the New Jersey State Library
The New Jersey State Library has four bureaus: the State Library Information Center (SLIC), Lifelong Learning (LLL), Library Support Services (LSS) and the NJ State Library Talking Book & Braille Center (TBBC). The State Library connects people with information through its service to libraries, government and people with special needs. The State Library, which is affiliated with Thomas Edison State College, coordinates, promotes and funds the New Jersey Library Network, of which we are a proud member. Last year, attendance in New Jersey’s public libraries was well over 51 million with total circulation of almost 64 million, an increase of almost 6 million. For more information, visit www.njstatelib.org.
