There will be two events in honor of eighteenth century preacher and theologian Jonathan Edwards in Northampton on Saturday, October 3, 2009. Novelist and Northampton resident Susan Stinson will give a walking tour of the Bridge Street Cemetery at 10 am. At 7 pm, Stinson will give a reading from her novel about Edwards at First Churches, which is located at 120 Main Street, Northampton. The events, marking the three hundred and sixth anniversary of the birth of Jonathan Edwards (born October 5, 1705), are sponsored by Forbes Library.

The tour will focus on graves and markers relevant to Jonathan Edwards, his family and community. People interested in attending the tour should go in the Parsons Street entrance and look for the red tricycle with a sign about the tour. If you like, bring cell phones and video cameras to document the event. (Upload to the Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=123858679530&ref=mf )

The reading will be held in the sanctuary of First Churches, still home to the congregation where Jonathan Edwards, widely considered to be America’s most brilliant theologian, was minister for many years. The spiritual and intellectual richness of Edwards' inner world is matched by the dramatic events of his life, including the ambiguities in his role as a slave owner. Stinson will read from Spider in a Tree, a novel about Edwards which she has been at work on for seven years. The book fuses the historic and the imaginative in telling the story of his turbulent time in eighteenth century Northampton.

Susan Stinson is the award-winning author of three previous novels and a collection of poetry and lyric essays. She has received grants and fellowships from the Deming Fund, the Wurlitzer Foundation, the Millay Colony, and the Blue Mountain Center, among others. The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University will feature videos of Stinson reading excerpts from Spider in a Tree on their website in October. The address is http://edwards.yale.edu/.