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New Light on Cotton Mather - A Virtual Discussion with Reiner Smolinski and Kenneth Minkema

This February marks the 360th birthday of Boston minister Cotton Mather, as well as the 295th anniversary of his death. A major spiritual and intellectual figure in early New England, Mather played an active role in colonial politics, the Salem witchcraft trials, and wrote one of the earliest and most influential histories of New England. The Congregational Library has one of the nation's most important collections of Mather's works.

Join us for a virtual conversation with Reiner Smolinski and Kenneth Minkema about new perspectives on the life and legacy of Mather. Smolinski and Minkema are editors of A Cotton Mather Reader (Yale University Press, 2022), an authoritative selection of the writings of one of the most important early American writers. Mather has a wide presence in American culture, and longtime scholarly interest in him is increasing as more of his previously unpublished writings are made available. A Cotton Mather Reader serves as an introduction to the man and to his huge body of published and unpublished works.

Feb 8, 2023 01:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)