In addition to people from the University of Washington and residents from the University District neighborhood of Seattle, people came from as far away as Burien, Bellevue, Bainbridge Island, and even Bellingham to hear about Safronoff’s book. One person even came from Grass Valley, California, to attend the event.

Safronoff’s talk focused on Eddy and Woodhull as nineteenth-century examples of female public figures, as well as their disagreement over how women’s rights should impact the institution of marriage–the battle for the soul of marriage, or woman’s climb to new heights and the genesis of modern marriage issues. The readings highlighted how American pundits responded to the influence of these extraordinarily accomplished trailblazing women. Some of the better-known commentators quoted in the readings included Susan B. Anthony, Mark Twain, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

After the readings, audience members showed their interest in the topic through their many questions for the author. The Q&A portion completely filled the remainder of the hour-long “Reading Allowed” event. Then attendees kept Safronoff busy signing books for the next twenty minutes.

Nineteen copies of the book were sold during the event. The bookstore staff seemed to consider the event a success. It was an especially good turnout considering it was the middle of a three-day national holiday weekend in a town that loves its weekend getaways, and the Seahawks, the local professional football team, was in a playoff game the same day.

University Book Store is an independent bookstore founded in 1900 by University of Washington students. The prominent multi-level bookstore, where UW students continue to purchase their text books today, is located near the main campus on University Way.

University Book Store has some coincidental associations to the career legacies of Mary Baker Eddy and Victoria Woodhull, the two leading ladies of the story told in Crossing Swords.

The present-day parking lot for the bookstore was formerly the site of a building part of Eddy’s religious organization. When the University Book Store needed the parking lot, the Christian Science Organization for UW college students sold the property and built their present building two blocks to the south on University Way. 

Also, University Book Store author events too large for the second-floor event room are held at Town Hall downtown, a public auditorium originally built as a branch of Eddy’s church. The auditorium-style building design was influenced by a church architectural style developed in the mid-nineteenth century by Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, Victoria Woodhull’s nemesis in Crossing Swords. 

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On Sunday, January 17, 2016, from 3:00 to 4:00 PM in the event room on the second floor, Safronoff will do a reading from her recently published book, Crossing Swords: Mary Baker Eddy vs. Victoria Claflin Woodhull and the Battle for the Soul of Marriage (This One Thing, July 4, 2015). She will also answer questions, and sign books.

Books can be purchased in advance through the University Book Store website.

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