CHESTERTOWN — A reading and book signing with Josh Pons on Wednesday, Dec. 18 at The Kitchen at The Imperial will wrap up The Bookplate’s 2024 season of author events.
In 2016, Pons discovered thousands of letters from his grandfather Adolphe Pons’ life in the Thoroughbred horse business.
The son of a French cook in the Gilded Age mansions of banker August Belmont II, Adolphe Pons immigrated to New York City at the age of 5 in 1888. In time, he became Belmont’s personal secretary and played a major role in Belmont’s breeding and sale of Man o’ War, widely regarded as one of the greatest racehorses of all time.
During the Great Depression, Adolphe Pons left New York and bought a 100-acre horse farm in Fallston, Maryland, naming it Country Life.
In expanded form, Josh Pons draws upon the popular column he wrote for three years for BloodHorse magazine.
In “Letters from Country Life,” Pons invites readers along as he unearths long-lost voices of Gilded Age tycoons — their voices speaking out from century-old letters and telegrams and their images in never-before-seen photos.
What results is an epic story set against the backdrop of World War I, the Great Depression and World War II.
The public is invited to the Dec. 18 event, which begins at 6 p.m.; there is no cost, but reservations are recommended.
For more information, or to reserve a seat, call The Bookplate at 410-778-4167 or email contact@thebookplate.net.
The Kitchen at The Imperial is located at 208 High St. in downtown Chestertown.
Josh Pons won two Eclipse Awards for his journalism in BloodHorse, presented for best stories of the year in the sport of Thoroughbred racing.
He is the author of three books published by Eclipse Press: “Country Life Diary: Three Years in the Life of a Maryland Horse Farm,” which sold 10,000 copies; “Merryland: Two Years in the Life of a Thoroughbred Training Farm,” available now in its second printing; and the just-released “Letters from Country Life: Adolphe Pons, Man o’ War, and the Founding of Maryland’s Oldest Thoroughbred Farm.”
Pons joined BloodHorse upon graduation from the University of Virginia, where he majored in English.
After three years as a journalist, he entered the University of Kentucky Law School, graduating in 1982, and then he returned to his family’s Country Life Farm.
Professionally, he is president of the Maryland Horse Library and Education Center and vice president of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association. He along with his brother Mike operate Country Life Farm, a full-service Thoroughbred farm specializing in breeding and racing partnerships.