Montana Book Company will host author Betsy Gaines Quammen on Tuesday, October 27, for a reading and conversation around her new book "This Haunted Land." Admission is free, but RSVPs are requested by Sunday, October 25.
Quammen's book takes up the question of why ghost stories endure — and what they actually tell us about history when examined closely. The work moves through some of America's most persistent legends, approaching them with what the author describes as curiosity and a degree of skepticism, to surface the darker or more unsettled chapters of the past that the stories often sit on top of.
Quammen, who is based in Montana, has written previously about religion, land use, and the American West. Her work has drawn readers interested in the intersection of culture, place, and history — an overlap that tends to find an audience in Helena. Montana Book Company is located on Last Chance Gulch.