Learn about pioneering cryptanalyst’s life and local ties at Batavia’s Books Between Bites
On Thursday, Feb. 20, learn about the life and career of codebreaker Elizebeth Smith Friedman at the next Batavia’s Books Between Bites.
Vivien Lasken, director of the Fabyan Villa Museum and Japanese Garden, will talk about Jason Fagone’s 2017 nonfiction book, “The Woman Who Smashed Codes: True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America’s Enemies.”
Elizebeth Smith Friedman was a pioneer in code-breaking and one of the nation’s foremost cryptanalysts. She took down smuggling syndicates during Prohibition, broke enigma codes in World War II, and caught Nazi spies in South America. She and her husband, William Friedman, practically invented their field overnight.
Learn about her start at the Geneva estate of Colonel George Fabyan, the eccentric millionaire, and how her research led to the start of the National Security Agency.
It will be noon to 1 p.m. in the large Founders Room on the main level of the Batavia Public Library, 10 S. Batavia Ave. (Route 31). These programs are free and open to the community. Reservations are not required. Books will be available for sale and signing. Parking is available in the lot just south and adjacent to the library.
BATV records these programs and the videos are posted on YouTube. Now available is Valerie Blaine’s Dec. 12 program on the book “The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light.”
Bring your lunch to enjoy during the program and discussion. Lunch items, beverages and baked goods also may be purchased at Flyleaf Bakery Cafe, located just inside the library and next to the meeting room. To preorder for pickup just before the program, call (331) 302-3480.
For more on Books Between Bites, visit booksbetweenbites.com. Printed season schedules also are available at Batavia Public Library.
On March 20, Lester Munson will be returning to talk about Keith O’Brien’s 2024 biography, “Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball.”
On Thursday, April 10, Dan Hoefler, a retired history teacher and president of the Batavia Historical Society, will discuss the 2006 book “Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer,” by attorney and Lincoln scholar James L. Swanson.
On Thursday, May 15, retired Batavia teachers Kathy Hubbard and Linda Sullivan will close out the season with a talk on the 2024 book, “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt.