Elizabeth Letts in conversation with American Equestrian Denny Emerson!

Elizabeth Letts, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of The Eighty-Dollar Champion and The Perfect Horse, joins us with Denny Emerson and her new book The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America.

This is a FREE virtual event, registration is required to receive the link and passcode. The link and passcode will be sent the day of the event to the email used at registration. Copies of The Ride of Her Life can be pre-purchased on our website. Books will be available on June 1st.

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The triumphant true story of a woman who rode her horse across America in the 1950s, fulfilling her dying wish to see the Pacific Ocean, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Horse and The Eighty-Dollar Champion.In 1954, sixty-three-year-old Maine farmer Annie Wilkins embarked on an impossible journey. She had no money and no family, she had just lost her farm, and her doctor had given her only two years to live. But Annie wanted to see the Pacific Ocean before she died. She ignored her doctor's advice to move into the county charity home. Instead, she bought a cast-off brown gelding named Tarzan, donned men's dungarees, and headed south in mid-November, hoping to beat the snow. Annie had little idea what to expect beyond her rural crossroads; she didn't even have a map. But she did have her ex-racehorse, her faithful mutt, and her own unfailing belief that Americans would treat a stranger with kindness.

Annie, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi, rode straight into a world transformed by the rapid construction of modern highways. Between 1954 and 1956, they pushed through blizzards, forded rivers, climbed mountains, and clung to the narrow shoulder as cars whipped by them at terrifying speeds. Annie rode more than four thousand miles, through America's big cities and small towns. Along the way, she met ordinary people and celebrities - from Andrew Wyeth (who sketched Tarzan) to Art Linkletter and Groucho Marx . She received many offers - a permanent home at a riding stable in New Jersey, a job at a gas station in rural Kentucky, even a marriage proposal from a Wyoming rancher. In a decade when car ownership nearly tripled, when television's influence was expanding fast, when homeowners began locking their doors, Annie and her four-footed companions inspired an outpouring of neighborliness in a rapidly changing world.

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Denny Emerson has ridden thousands of horses over many thousands of miles in all kinds of horse sports. He achieved much success in the sport of eventing, having competed for 48 years at the preliminary level or higher. In 1974 Denny was a team member gold medalist with United State Equestrian Team (USET) at the Burghley, England World Championship Three-Day Event. He was the reserve rider for the USET at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Denny has been inducted into three Halls of Fame: the USEA Hall of Fame, the Vermont Academy Athletic Hall of Fame, and the Dartmouth College Athletic Hall of Fame. In 2000, he was named "One of the 50 Most Influential Horsemen of the 20th Century" by The Chronicle of the Horse. He is the author of How Good Riders Get Good, Know Better to Do Better, and the forthcoming Begin and Begin Again: The Bright Optimism of Reinventing Life with Horses. He and his wife May divide their time between Strafford, VT and Southern Pines, NC