Discussion planned for book described as roadmap ‘to restore journalism’s power to inform’

New Dominion Bookshop will host a book talk and signing with author Mary Llewellyn McNeil on Feb. 4 at 4 p.m.

McNeil will be speaking about her recent book, Century’s Witness: The Extraordinary Life of Journalist Wallace Carroll, which was released from Whaler Books in September.

A conversation with McNeill and author Caroline Preston will follow.

This in-person event will be free to attend and open to the public.

Carroll was one of the most influential journalistic heroes of the 20th century. He was a mentor to a generation of reporters and editors, and his life story is especially relevant today given the crisis in local reporting and ethical challenges in journalism. Carroll covered the most significant events of his time, from the London Blitz to the Vietnam War, and left the national stage to advance the cause of desegregation in the South.

Century’s Witness gives fascinating eyewitness accounts of these events. As one review remarked, it is “the best roadmap there is if we aim to restore journalism’s power to inform and persuade.”

McNeil is a former writer and editor for the Congressional Quarterly and the principal author of Environment and Health, Reagan’s First Year, and The Nuclear Age. During a 28-year career at the World Bank, she launched and edited two global magazines, The Urban Age and Development Outreach and led projects aimed at civil society strengthening and government accountability. A graduate of the John F. Kennedy School of Government and Wake Forest University, she lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and three daughters. This is her first full-length biography.

Preston is the author of two graphic novels, The Warbride’s Scrapbook and The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt (both from Ecco), and three novels, Jackie by Josie (a New York Times Notable Book), Lucy Crocker 2.0, and Gatsby’s Girl. She lives in Charlottesville with her husband, writer Christopher Tilghman.

New Dominion Bookshop is located at 404 E Main St. in Charlottesville.

For more information, visit ndbookshop.com.