The House of the Good Shepherd retirement community in Hackettstown will host a special book launch and signing on Thursday, March 16 featuring the author Peter Lubrecht and his newest book, “The Statesman and the Socialite: Carl Schurz and Fanny Chapman.”

After the release of “Carl Schurz German American Statesman: My Country Right or Wrong” in 2019, Lubrecht has followed up with “The Statesman and the Socialite: Carl Schurz and Fanny Chapman.” This new book is about the last half of  Schurz’s life and his relationship with his love, socialite Fanny Chapman during the Gilded Age.

The book launch and signing begins at 2 p.m. at Riverwalk Village at the House of the Good Shepherd, 798 Willow Grove Street. The event is free and open to the public.

According to Lubrecht, the newest resident of The House, Schurz was a larger-than-life public figure whose exploits, real and concocted, appeared in newspapers nationwide during the 19th century. His letters to Chapman, his secret love, leave a picture of an age of turmoil, corruption, social graces, and artistic explosion. It took a renaissance man like Schurz to travel among the greats in the literary, artistic and political arenas with grace and judgement. The tragedy of his life, if there was one, is that he is nearly forgotten in the modern world in the face of revisionist history.

Schurz was a fighter for human rights including all races and creeds and a pioneer muckraker in a corrupt city of a “Gilded Age.” Lost are his educational contributions, his unpopular and prophetic political stance for civil service reform and his fight against a trend toward national imperialism.

“I felt that the life of the man in New York during the Gilded Age, as the city pulsed and flexed with both bad and good vibrations in the political, musical, and performing arts worlds, needed to be told. Earlier biographers knew the existence of Schurz’s ladylove Fanny Chapman, but the relationship and their lives framed by the time in which they lived have never been examined,” Lubrecht points out.

When asked what he wants readers to take away from the book, Lubrecht answered, “Carl Schurz was a man who had been in the White House visiting or dining with 10 American presidents and statesmen. He played a Chopin piece at Carnegie Hall. He fought in the Civil War and later fought for civil rights and against prejudice at all levels. Few men have achieved what he had. I hope the reader likes the convoluted and fascinating life journey of this great man in the midst of the Gilded Age.”

Books may be purchased at the event. For more information about the event call (908) 684-5900. To learn more about The House, visit www.hotgs.org.