The Newport Historical Society is pleased to host Jack Kelley for a free virtual lecture, Valcour: The 1776 Campaign that Saved the Cause of Liberty, on Thursday October 28, 2021 at 5pm, on Zoom. Advance registration required: email esulock@newporthistory.org.

Jack Kelly will relate the neglected story of one of the most critical and suspense-filled campaigns of the Revolutionary War. That summer, patriots knew they had to stop an enemy invasion from Canada that could have won the war for the British. In a desperate fight on Lake Champlain, audacious Americans in hastily assembled boats faced the powerful cannons of the Royal Navy. Their success meant they would continue to fight on, setting up the breakthrough victory at Saratoga the following year.

Jack Kelly is an award-winning author and historian. His latest book is Valcour: The 1776 Campaign That Saved the Cause of Liberty (St. Martin’s Press). His previous work, Band of Giants: The Amateur Soldiers Who Won America’s Independence, received the DAR History Medal. He has published five novels, and is a New York Foundation for the Arts fellow in Nonfiction Literature. He has written for many national publications, and has appeared on The History Channel, National Public Radio, and C-Span. He lives and works in New York’s Hudson Valley.

The Wall Street Journal described Valcour as “Vividly written . . . in novelistic prose, Mr. Kelly conveys the starkness of close-quarter naval warfare, where retreat was impossible.” Publishers Weekly noted: ”Readers will be intrigued by this evocative portrait of one of America’s greatest traitors at the height of his glory.”