Friends of the Virginia Beach Public Library Present Meet the Author: Lon Wagner, Author of The Fever: The Most Fatal Plague in American History

Friends of the Virginia Beach Public Library Present Lon Wagner, Author of "The Fever: The Most Fatal Plague in American History." 

“The Fever” explores the Summer of 1855 when the nation cast its eyes on the working-class port of Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia. A ship named the Benjamin Franklin had steamed in from the West Indies harbor of St.Thomas, where yellow fever had hopped from ship to ship that winter and tied up at a dock for repairs. 

In the 100 days from late June 1855 until the first frost quelled the mosquito population, residents of the two cities confronted an unknown and unseen airborne stalker that killed one of every three people. “The Fever” is the never-before-told story of the deadliest epidemic in American history.   

Nominated twice for his work for the Pulitzer Prize, including once for a fourteen-part series about the 1855 yellow fever epidemic, Lon Wagner talks about his latest release during the Friends Annual Meeting. 

Free and open to the public. Registration is recommended.