The Algonquin Club, 217 Commonwealth Ave., Boston. (Wikipedia)

After a dozen or so events last fall to promote my book Lost Providence, I thought maybe I could relax and live, if not like a king then maybe a duke or earl, off my royalties. Ha ha! Those familiar with the good work of History Press and Arcadia Publishing will get the yoke – their imprint is for people who write for love (usually of this or that place), not money. But the love keeps on coming in. More people want to hear about the book.

The next event will be in Boston two weeks from today, on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 6:30 at the Algonquin Club (217 Commonwealth Ave.). It is sponsored by the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art’s New England chapter, on whose board I have the honor to sit. The Algonquin Club was completed in 1888 to the design of McKim Mead & White, the great Gilded Age firm of architects. Charles Follen McKim, of the firm, was a member of the Algonquin, which may or may not prove he designed it. His colleague Stanford White designed Rosecliff, the Newport “cottage” where the Preservation Society of Newport County hosted a lecture on Lost Providence in September. I look forward to addressing the guests of the ICAA at the Algonquin Club. To speak for such a group in such a building excites me beyond expression. Reservations are $25 for members of the ICAA and $35 for nonmembers.

But wait! There’s more!

On Wednesday, Feb. 28, the Johnston Historical Society, will host a Lost Providence lecture at the Museum Barn, 101 Putnam Pike, in Johnston, R.I. The lecture begins after the Society’s regular  7 o’clock meeting, at about 7:45 p.m., and is free and open to the public.

On Tuesday, March 6, the Barrington Public Library will host a Lost Providence lecture at the former Leander Peck School, designed in the Elizabethan Revival style by Providence architects Martin & Hall and completed in 1917 next door to the Barrington Town Hall, completed in 1888, same year as the Algonquin Club. The library’s address is 281 County Rd. The lecture begins at 6:30 p.m., and is free and open to the public.

Still in the works is a lecture at Fitchburg State University, in Fitchburg, Mass. It may be closed to the public, as was my Jan. 18 lecture at the Hope Club, sponsored by the Colonial Dames of Rhode Island, or open only to students at Fitchburg, or it may not happen at all. We shall see.

At any rate, if you have missed all the lectures thus far, there are others popping up on the calendar like … well, I’ll let someone else suggest an appropriate flower. At each event, the book will be on sale for $20.

Barrington Public Library, next to Town Hall in Barrington, R.I. (picclick.com)