Glorious Country: How Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the World
Victoria Johnson
(Scribner, 2026)

This first-ever biography of Frederic Church shows how the virtuosic artist and adventurer brought the wider world to a young America while putting American art on the international map. Glorious Country traces the path of a towering artist and of his country in an era of fervent change. Church worked and lived in New York in the city’s formative years. He was a founder of its first great museum, the Met. In his paintings, he conveyed his passion for the exquisite natural beauty of the United States and for a Union free of monarchy and of slavery.

This event is presented in partnership with Delaware Art Museum and Rehoboth Art League.

About the Author
Victoria Johnson is a writer and professor of urban policy and planning at Hunter College in NYC. She earned her BA from Yale and her PhD from Columbia. Her book, American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic, was a finalist for the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize.

Purchase the book
Please help support local independent bookstores by purchasing this book at Browseabout Books, official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Online sources and digital versions are tempting; however, supporting local brick and mortar shops helps to preserve our vibrant main streets. Drop by Browseabout, order books online, or call the store at 302-226-2665. You also may purchase a copy at biblion in Lewes.

About the Festival
The History Book Festival is the first and only book festival in the United States devoted exclusively to history. With the help of our presenting funding partner —  The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices | PenFed Realty — as well as our program and community partners, volunteers, and donors, the 2026 History Book Festival will be full of great discussions with authors of newly published narrative nonfiction and historical fiction. 

Thanks to all our donors, especially our education and outreach funding partners: Carolyn & Aaron Nayer, Jen Mason & Clare Hancock, the Red Wagon Foundation, and Browseabout Books. HBF authors visit classrooms in Delaware, and HBF provides their books to schools, libraries, and community organizations.

Our Keynote event is presented by Griswold Home Care for Sussex & Kent Counties and Groome Church; our Closing event is presented by the Delaware Community Foundation. The Spirited Discussion, our gathering for attendees and presenters to celebrate and discuss their day, is presented by Dogfish Head Beer & Benevolence.

Special thanks to our Program Partners for their continuing support: the Lewes Public Library for event promotion and production; Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, official bookseller of the History Book Festival; and Historic Lewes for event promotion and author hospitality. Thanks also to the Lewes Chamber of Commerce for event promotion, and the Cape Gazette and Delmarva Public Media, our media partners.