Lecture and Book Signing to Commemorate 227th Anniversary of Victory at Yorktown

Alan Hoffman, translator of the first unabridged English version of Auguste Levasseur's "Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825: Journal of a Voyage to the United States," will speak at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17, at the University Village Bookstore. The event, sponsored by Friends of the Old Dominion University Libraries, commemorates the 227th anniversary of the American and French Victory at Yorktown on Oct. 19.

Hoffman, who spent three years working on this unabridged English translation of Levasseur's journal, will discuss Gen. Lafayette's final tour of America, including the time he spent in Norfolk and Hampton Roads. Levasseur wrote his journal as a young French officer serving as Lafayette's private secretary. Leyasseur was involved in conspiratorial activity against the Bourbon Monarchy in the early 1820s. After serving Lafayette, he was involved in the Revolution of 1830 and later held a diplomatic post under King Louis-Phillipe.

Hoffman has a bachelor's degree in history from Yale University and a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School. He is a member of the American Friends of Lafayette and the Massachusetts Lafayette Society.

The University Village Bookstore is located at 4417 Monarch Way in Norfolk. Free parking will be available after 2 p.m. in parking garages C and D, which are near the bookstore. The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Fern McDougal at 757-683-4146 or fmcdouga@odu.edu.