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Lawrence Reid Bechtel
Sculptor and author Lawrence Bechtel began his journey toward the writing of "A Slave in Philadelphia," his debut novel, with two bronze portrait sculptures: the first of Thomas Jefferson and the s...view moreSculptor and author Lawrence Bechtel began his journey toward the writing of "A Slave in Philadelphia," his debut novel, with two bronze portrait sculptures: the first of Thomas Jefferson and the second of Isaac Granger, who had grown up as a slave at Monticello. During the course of this work, and the extensive research it involved, Lawrence read about Isaac's brief account of his time in Philadelphia as a tinsmith's apprentice and felt compelled, finally, to write a historical novel built from that account. This began with a long process of finding Isaac's voice, encouraged as he did so by the words of E.M. Forster from Howards End: "only connect." A former English teacher at Virginia Tech, book reviewer for The Roanoke Times, and creator of three CDs' worth of short stories, Lawrence is presently working on the sequel novel for this series.view less