UK Libraries is pleased to welcome historian and bestselling author Dr. Evan Friss as the featured speaker for the 2026 Edward F. Prichard Lecture.
Drawing on his most recent book, The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore, Friss will discuss how the “endangered species” of the independent bookstore has long influenced peoples’ reading tastes, fostered community, and shaped political views. Along the way he’ll weave vivid stories from his wide-ranging research, drawn from archives, paper records, oral history interviews, and visits to over 100 bookstores around the country.
The Prichard Lecture will be held on Wednesday, March 11 at 5:30pm in the Young Library Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public. A book signing will be held after the lecture and copies of The Bookshop will be available to purchase. Seating is limited and RSVPs are appreciated.
Friss is a professor of history at James Madison University and has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Time, and other popular outlets.
Friss’s first two works – The Cycling City: Bicycles and Urban American in the 1890s (2015) and On Bicycles (2019) – cover the history of cycling in urban America.
The Bookshop was an instant, multi-week New York Times bestseller and spent nineteen weeks on the Indie Bestseller List. The book earned rave reviews from publications across the country and was named a “100 Must-Read Books of 2024,” by Time, a “Book of the Week” by People, and the “#2 Best Reviewed Nonfiction Book of the Year” by Lit Hub. It was also the Goodreads Choice Award Winner in History & Biography.
Friss is currently at work on his fourth book, tentatively titled, Lists: A Human History.
Since its inception in 1977, the Edward F. Prichard Lecture Series has featured nationally acclaimed authors, journalists, historians, and public figures. The Prichard Lecture is made possible by an endowment created by Edward F. Prichard, Jr., a New Deal activist who later championed educational change in Kentucky.
