Author Talk with Stephen Prothero

From New York City Editor to Sturgis Library President Eugene Exman and the “Religion of Experience”

Join New York Times bestselling author Stephen Prothero for a discussion of his book, God The Bestseller.

Come learn about the fascinating  life of Eugene Exman, former Sturgis Library president and NYC editor,  who altered the course of religion in the United States.

Widely hailed as “the dean of American religion publishing,” Eugene Exman edited hundreds of bestsellers—by Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, Albert Schweitzer, Aldous Huxley, and more—between the 1920s and 1960s. In that role, he altered the course of religion in the United States, redirecting it from dogma and ritual to feeling and experience. Exman also had a fascinating personal life, which included founding an interfaith commune in southern California in the 1940s, experimenting with LSD in the 1950s, and taking a guru in India in the 1960s. When he retired, he moved to Barnstable Village, where he served as a trustee and president of Sturgis Library. God the Bestseller (HarperOne, 2023), based on Exman’s personal and professional archive unearthed a few houses away from the library, tells Exman’s life story. This talk by Stephen Prothero, a Boston University professor and West Barnstable resident, presents Exman’s life through local eyes.

To register email reference@sturgislibrary.org