Program Announcement: Victim of Honor: The Story of John Y. Beall and the Northwestern Conspiracy (book talk)

Join us in the Library Program Room on Saturday, February 2, at 2:00 p.m. as author James E. Duffey discusses his recently published book Victim of Honor: The Story of John Y. Beall and the Northwestern Conspiracy. The book is a historical novel based on the plot engineered by Confederate officer John Yates Beall to free prisoners from the Johnson's Island Civil War Prison Camp.

About the author.....James E. Duffey:

Though he was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1947, James E. Duffey has spent most of his life in Youngstown, Ohio. A graduate of Youngstown State University, he majored in English, and history, and has earned both a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Education, and a Master’s Degree in American history. It was in graduate school that Jim got interested in writing professionally, where he was awarded the Madeline Blum Award for the most outstanding original research project of the year, a history of the Irish in Youngstown, 1890-1930. While taking an introduction to research course in graduate school he was assigned to write a short paper on the anti-war activists in Ohio and Michigan during the Civil War. This led him to discover the role of Confederates in Canada and their conspiracy with the anti-war movement in the United States. What began as a ten page paper was later expanded to thirty pages because it seemed there was a greater story that needed to be told. So, what began as a short research paper ultimately resulted in eight years of research and his book, Victim of Honor.

Jim has taught for over thirty years at both the high school and college levels, and currently serves as adjunct professor of history at Kent State University’s Stark County branch campus in Canton, Ohio. He resides in Medina, Ohio.

Jim is currently working on two new books, both sequels to Victim of Honor. One is based on the life of Bennet Graham Burleigh, who served with the Confederates both along the Chesapeake Bay and in Canada during the Civil War. Captured twice, he escaped prison and returned to Canada, and then home to the United Kingdom. An adventurer at heart, he became a war correspondent for the London Daily Telegram. Burleigh took many chances as a reporter, risking his life many times while covering the Boer Wars in Africa, the war in Madagascar, and the Russo-Japanese War, and become a media celebrity in the process.

The second book is about the life of Martha O’Bryan, John Beall’s fiancé. After Beall’s death Martha never married. She returned to Nashville and resumed her teaching career and later did years of volunteer work with the poor of Nashville for which she is most remembered.

Mr. Duffey will sign copies of his book, which will be available for sale at a discount, after the presentation. Registration is requested but not required. To register, call 419-625-3834 and press 0 to speak with a switchboard operator (9-5, Monday-Friday) or press Option 6 to leave a message.


(Reposted to move it to the top of the webpage.)