Author's Information
Priscilla Coit Murphy is a New England author with a PhD in media history. She has taught courses in book and media history.
A lifelong book lover, Priscilla has also worked in several areas of book publishing, primarily as a manuscript editor. Her academic interest in media history focused specifically on book and publishing history. Her focus has been on the unique interactions between books and media in creating public debate, notably how Rachel Carson's 1962 bestseller Silent Spring put the issues of pesticide abuse and environmental awareness on the public's agenda.
She also contributed chapters on books and the media for the History of the Book in America and Rethinking Media Change from MIT’s Media in Transition Series.
More recently she completed Dewauki's Last Days, a novel based on life at a New Hampshire grande-dame-style resort in 1965, its final summer. Currently, she is working on a general-audience history of Christmas traditions in Massachusetts.