COS COB, Conn. – He was handsome, Ivy League educated and, like his peer Alexander Hamilton, a trusted captain in Washington’s Continental Army. Unlike Hamilton, whose legacy vaulted on Broadway, Hale’s heroics ended in an unmarked grave following his execution as a spy. Yet his last words before the noose was tightened remain immortalized in the history of America’s bitter war for independence: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
Hear Greenwich resident Scott Smith, author of The Spy and the Seamstress, tell the thrilling tale of how this American hero supported Washington in 1776 at a dire period in the war when the Continental Army was surrounded by the British in New York. Autographed copies of the book will be available for purchase the day of the lecture, which takes place at the Historical Society on Tuesday, October 24, from 6 –7:30 pm. For reservations and more information: https://greenwichhistory.org/event/the-spy-and-the-seamstress/.
After writing two contemporary thrillers, Smith yearned to go back in time. Hamilton the Musical first hooked him on the Revolution, and inadvertently led him to Nathan Hale. Smith will recount the time when Hale’s fate was sealed when he was the only one to volunteer to go behind enemy lines to support Washington. The Revolutionary tale is filled with action, suspense and romance while also probing deeper moral issues that still resonate today.
After a 30-year career on Wall Street, Scott retired in 2014 to pursue a lifelong passion to write. His cybersecurity novel, Darkness is Coming, won Distinguished Favorite in the Thriller category in the NYC Big Book Award competition. In 2017, he began researching the life and times of Nathan Hale, the official hero of his adopted home state of Connecticut. The effort resulted in The Spy and the Seamstress, as well as several in-depth articles published in the prestigious Journal of the American Revolution. Two of Scott's articles were selected for inclusion in the Journal's annual compendium of its best writings.
Photos are provided with permission from author Scott Smith