The back and front covers of Lost Providence, on sale August 28. (History Press)

Yesterday, the author’s allotment of five (5) free copies of his book arrived at his happy household in Providence. Today, I started reading it to my wife, and when it goes on sale this August 28 I will start hectoring – oops, I mean lecturing – broader audiences at a series of book events designed to publicize Lost Providence. The book is a history of architectural change in the capital of Rhode Island, and a primer on how citizens can seek to assure that change where they live is good rather than bad.

So far, with the assistance of my publisher, History Press, I have arranged four events. I am amidst negotiations for a dozen others, and have yet to contact yet another dozen or more organizations – schools, bookshops, newspapers, radio and TV stations – that might be willing to offer their patrons the controversial ideas packed into Lost Providence.

Here are the four book events arranged so far:

• Aug. 28, Symposium Books, 240 Westminster St., Providence: book launch, Monday, time TBA; free
• Sept. 20, Providence Public Library, 150 Empire St., slide lecture, Wednesday, 6:30 p.m.; free
• Sept. 25, Rochambeau Community Library, 708 Hope St., slide lecture, Monday, 7 p.m.; free
• Sept. 28, Preservation Society of Newport County, Rosecliff, 548 Bellevue Ave., slide lecture, Thursday, 6 p.m.; $10 members, $15 nonmembers

Lost Providence will also be available as an e-book. A set of postcards of illustrations from the book will be available in bookstores. This blog will have new pages devoted to the book, including one with illustrations of lost buildings that did not get a chapter in the book or illustrations that further illuminate the theme of the book but did not make it into the book, and a page where readers can share their own favorite lost buildings.

I will list more book events here on this blog as they are confirmed. Below is the house discussed in the book’s first chapter, called “Lost: Benjamin Hoppin House.”

Benjamin Hoppin House, erected 1816 on Westminster Street. (Providence Public Library)