The Lit Salon, a New Candelit Literary Salon Inside a Historic Townhouse

Announcing The Lit Salon, an intimate literary salon set to candlelight inside Maison Brooklyn, the townhouse of author and journalist Michelle Young, the founder of Untapped New York. The Lit Salon will feature conversations with award-winning authors at the release of their latest books, paired with a specialty cocktail inspired by the book. A musical performance by The Brownstone Trio will open each event, followed by an author conversation and book signing. Each event will conclude with time to mingle and enjoy your complimentary drink. The Lit Salon can also be joined virtually. The Lit Salon is proud to be partnered with Aerangis candles, Ode à la Rose, a NYC flower delivery service, and Fort Hamilton Distillery for this series.

Launching on February 6, 2024, The Lit Salon will feature author Michael Wolraich, whose latest book The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age (Union Square & Co.) chronicles a true crime epic of murder and corruption in 1930s New York. Michael will be in conversation with author and journalist Michelle Young and Pulitzer Prize winner Debby Applegate, author of Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler. The Prohibition-era cocktail, Bees Knees, will be served and a musical performance of Gabriel Faure’s Piano Trio, composed in the same decade as the events in the book, will open the event. You can join in-person or virtually and can order the book with your tickets or pre-order the book separately.

On February 21, The Lit Salon will feature author Ronald Drabkin, whose debut book Beverly Hills Spy: The Double Agent-War Hero Who Helped Japan Attack Pearl Harbor reveals the unbelievable and untold story of Frederick Rutland—a debonair British WWI hero, flying ace, fixture of Los Angeles society, and friend of Golden Age Hollywood stars—who flipped to become a spy for Japan in the lead-up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Seaplane cocktail will be served. You can join in-person or virtually and can order the book with your tickets or pre-order the book separately.

On March 19, The Lit Salon will feature author and arts writer Carol Kino, whose book Double Click: Twin Photographers in the Golden Age of Magazines (Scribner) is a riveting biography of identical twin sisters who became groundbreaking photographers in New York during the glamorous magazine golden age of the 1930s and 40s. The McLaughlin twins were trailblazing female photographers, celebrated in their time as stars in their respective fields, but have largely been forgotten since. The French 75 cocktail will be served. You can join in-person or virtually and can order the book with your tickets or pre-order the book separately.

The Lit Salon is also an opportunity to see the inside of Maison Brooklyn, an 1890s townhouse that was lovingly restored and modernized by Michelle and her husband Augustin Pasquet with re-ad architecture design. The home was a finalist for the 2023 NYCxDESIGN award’s House Renovation category. Together, Michelle and Augustin run Maison Brooklyn, a real estate rental and property management company specializing in historic homes.

Early bird tickets for The Lit Salon are $35, with the opportunity to purchase an autographed and dedicated copy of the book. Space is limited, early bird ticketing ends one week before each event. Livestream tickets are $10, or free for Untapped New York Insiders.

Author and Performer Bios:

Michelle Young is the author of Secret Brooklyn, Secret New York: Hidden Bars & Restaurants, Broadway, and the forthcoming narrative non-fiction book, The Art Spy, to be published by HarperOne, an imprint of Harper Collins. The Art Spy was Publisher’s Weekly Deal of the Week in August 2022. Michelle is also the founder of Untapped New York, a Professor of Architecture at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and a scholar in the New York Public Library’s Allen Room. Michelle’s writing and photography have been published in The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Hyperallergic, The Forward, Business Insider, Curbed, Metropolis Magazine and more. She was featured on the History Channel production The Engineering That Built the World, Netflix’s Stay Here, Smithsonian Channel’s Searching for Secrets, PBS’ 10 That Changed America, National Geographic’s Strange Truths, and Tell Me Something I Don’t Know with Stephen Dubner.

Michael Wolraich is the author of the critically acclaimed Unreasonable Men (2014) and Blowing Smoke (2010). His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, the Daily Beast, New York magazine, Reuters, and CNN. Wolraich grew up in Iowa and graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts before falling in love with New York City, where he has lived since 2000.

Debby Applegate is a historian and biographer based in New Haven, CT. Her first book, The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for biography and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for biography. She is also the author of Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler. 

Ronald Drabkin is the author of Beverly Hills Spy and peer-reviewed articles on Japanese espionage. His obsession with espionage history started when he was as a child in Los Angeles, where he vaguely understood that his father had been working for the US military in counterintelligence. Later he discovered that his grandfather had also been in “the business,” and it drove a voyage of discovery into previously classified documents on three continents. His career prior to writing was at early stage startups in the US, where he was an early adopter of Google and Facebook advertising. He currently lives in Tokyo.

Carol Kino is the author of Double Click: Twin Photographers in the Golden Age of Magazines. Her writing about art, artists, the art world, and contemporary culture has appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate, Town & Country, and just about every major art magazine. She was formerly a fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center at the New York Public Library and the USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program. She grew up on the Stanford campus in Northern California and lives in Manhattan. Double Click is her first book.

The Brownstone Trio is comprised of pianist Benedict Wong, violinist Steve Wu, and cellist Michelle Young. In her past life, Michelle was a graduate of the Juilliard Pre-College School of Music where she was principal cellist of the Juilliard Pre-College Symphony and an honorary scholarship recipient. She went on to play with the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, the Harvard Bach Society Orchestra, and various indie rock bands, including Laura Stevenson and Kittens Ablaze. Benedict Wong has been playing the piano since the age of 6. He started playing the piano at the age of 6, studied at the Academy for Performing Arts in Hong Kong and was awarded a music scholarship at Winchester College. He performs regularly at private house concerts and events and enjoys playing both solo and chamber music. In his professional life, Benedict is a co-founder at Up&Up, a real estate tech startup backed by Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund.

Join us for an upcoming Lit Salon!