Author Marc Leepson to give March 7 talk about new book on Francis Scott Key

All are invited to The Warrenton Antiquarian Society’s free annual Open Meeting, Tuesday, March 7 at 2 p.m. at the Warrenton-Fauquier Visitors Center, 33 N. Calhoun St. in Warrenton, VA.

Marc Leepson, a journalist, historian and author of nine books including “What So Proudly We Hailed: Francis Scott Key, A Life,” the first biography of the author of the “Star-Spangled Banner” in 75 years will give a lively talk on the little-known life of Francis Scott Key.

Key was one of the most famous citizens of the Early Republic, focusing on how the prominent Washington, D.C. lawyer came to write our National Anthem, the role he played as a member of President Andrew Jackson’s Kitchen Cabinet, and Key’s long involvement with the controversial American Colonization Society.

Francis Scott Key (1779-1843) was born in what is now Carroll County, Maryland, graduated from St. John’s College in Annapolis, read the law under his uncle, and was a leading attorney in a number of noted cases and trials including the prosecution of Richard Lawrence, whose unsuccessful attempt to assassinate President Andrew Jackson on the steps of the Capitol, was the first attempt to kill an American chief executive.

A former staff writer for Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D. C.,  Leepson has been a freelance writer since 1986 and taught U.S. History at Lord Fairfax Community College in Warrenton, from 2008-2015.

The Warrenton Antiquarian Society (WAS) is a nonprofit 501 (c)3 organization whose mission is to promote historic education and to preserve and conserve Weston, a 19th and 20th century farmstead located in the village of Casanova in Fauquier County.

A informal reception will follow Marc Leepson’s presentatio