The Moveable Feast is held at area restaurants throughout the year on Fridays, 11 AM-1 PM. On occasion, an author’s book tour schedule is accommodated with a mid-week Moveable Feast. For each feast, the chef prepares an exquisite menu, typically unavailable during the restaurant’s public hours. (Food allergies are accommodated with advance notice.) The presentation precedes the meal. Individuals, couples, friends, book clubs and other groups are assigned table seating. Each literary luncheon is followed by a book signing at Litchfield Books at 2 PM for those unable to participate in the feast. Each Feast is $30 with a $5 rebate when the featured book is purchased at the Moveable Feast, with some *exceptions when the book is included. For reservations, 843.235.9600 or visit ClassAtPawleys.com.
April 26 ~ Elizabeth Letts (Finding Dorothy) at Ocean One, Litchfield
This richly imagined novel tells the story behind The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the book that inspired the iconic film, through the eyes of author L. Frank Baum’s intrepid wife, Maud. Hollywood, 1938: As soon as she learns that M-G-M is adapting her late husband’s masterpiece for the screen, 77-year-old Maud Gage Baum sets about trying to finagle her way onto the set. Nineteen years after Frank’s passing, Maud is the only person who can help the producers stay true to the spirit of the book—because she’s the only one left who knows its secrets. But the moment she hears Judy Garland rehearsing the first notes of “Over the Rainbow,” Maud recognizes the yearning that defined her own life story, from her youth as a suffragette’s daughter to her coming of age as one of the first women in the Ivy League, from her blossoming romance with Frank to the hardscrabble prairie years that inspired The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Judy reminds Maud of a young girl she cared for and tried to help in South Dakota, a dreamer who never got her happy ending. Now, with the young actress under pressure from the studio as well as her ambitious stage mother, Maud resolves to protect her—the way she tried so hard to protect the real Dorothy. The author of two New York Times bestselling nonfiction books, The Eighty-Dollar Champion and The Perfect Horse, Elizabeth Letts is a master at discovering and researching a rich historical story and transforming it into a page-turner. Finding Dorothy is the result of Letts’ journey into the amazing lives of Frank and Maud Baum. Written as fiction but based closely on the truth, the book tells a story of love, loss, inspiration, and perseverance, set in America’s heartland.