Author Anita Sanchez will be the second speaker on Sunday, Aug. 23, in the Sid Emery Memorial Forum, a speakers series from Alfred Shaker Museum and the Sanford-Springvale Historical Society. The talk will take place at 1:30 p.m. at the museum and there is no admission charge.

Sanchez’ book, “Mr. Lincoln’s Chair,” is derived from the gift that the Shakers made President Abraham Lincoln after he exempted them from military duty during the Civil War, the first conscientious objectors in the country. The book also provides an overlook of Shaker history.

Sanchez is a botanist by training and also writes on subjects related to that work, including “The Teeth of the Lion: The Story of the Beloved and Despised Dandelion” and, most recently,” Leaflets Three, Let It Be! The Story of Poison Ivy.”

Sanchez was raised in Massachusetts but lives now in upstate New York, where she continues her own writing and teaches writing to young students.

The forum is offered with support from the Maine Humanities Council, Kennebunk Savings Foundation, the Alfred Historical Society, and two individual donors. The next two speakers will be Richard Judd, co-author of the Historical Atlas of Maine on Oct. 4, and George Neptune, an historian of Maine’s Native Americans and a craftsman who works at the Abbe Museum, on Oct. 25.

Her book also is a readable overview of Shaker history. As another reviewer on Amazon said, “I think a great strength of the book is how the author brings the Shakers to life. The caricature of them known to most of us would make us wonder why anyone would join them. But in this book we see a life, both spiritual and practical, which could and did draw many converts. I found myself becoming rather attached to these people and sad reading the later chapters on the decline and closure of their communities.”

Another book by Sanchez – The Invasion of Sandy Bay – also is based on history, in this case the War of 1812. It is a work of fiction for middle school students and deals with a Massachusetts coastal village. During that war, Maine was part of Massachusetts.

Sanchez is a botanist by training and also writes on subjects related to that work, including The Teeth of the Lion: The Story of the Beloved and Despised Dandelion and, most recently, Leaflets Three, Let It Be! The Story of Poison Ivy.

Sanchez was raised in Massachusetts but lives now in upstate New York where she continues her own writing and teaches writing to young students.

The forum is offered with support from the Maine Humanities Council, Kennebunk Savings Foundation, the Alfred Historical Society, and two individual donors. The next two speakers will be Richard Judd, co-author of a new Historical Atlas of Maine on Oct. 4, and George Neptune, an historian of Maine’s Native Americans and a craftsman who works at the Abbe Museum, on Oct. 25.