A
talk by author and De Anza College history professor Mary Jo Ignoffo
about her new book, Captive of the Labyrinth.
Through meticulous research, Ignoffo dispels many myths about
the reclusive heiress to the Winchester Rifle fortune, and accounts
for why many unfounded stories are still circulated about the
widow.
The author's other books are local and California histories about
such diverse topics as the Gold Rush and the genesis of Silicon
Valley.
Please click below to see other books by the author:
http://www.maryjoignoffo.com/index.php?p=1_2_Books
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The
Chicago-born, Los Angeles-raised, longtime resident of the San
Francisco Bay Area has spent much of the last twenty years researching
and writing about California and community history.
Her work with museums includes the permanent outdoor Orchard Heritage
Park Interpretive Exhibit in Sunnyvale, California and permanent
and changing exhibits at Heritage Park Museum, also in Sunnyvale.
She has been curator for more than ten installations at the California
History Center at De Anza College in Cupertino, and historian
and author for the 2010 exhibit on Sarah Winchester at the Los
Altos History Museum in Los Altos, California.
Her Gold Rush Politics (2000) is a detailed narrative about
California's first legislature convened in 1849 as the Gold Rush
erupted, and as people in California waited on the U.S. Congress
to admit the territory as the nation's thirty-first state. This
publication was sponsored by the California State Senate as its
Sesquicentennial Project, celebrating California's 150 years of
statehood, and earned Ignoffo a Resolution from the California
State Legislature.
Ignoffo's articles have appeared in the San Jose Mercury News,
Santa Clara Magazine, and The Californian. She has
been interviewed for documentaries including Sunnyvale Voices,
a film compilation of stories about the defense and agricultural
industries in California, and Million Dollar Dirt about
the demise of farmland in the San Francisco Bay Area. Ignoffo
has worked as a preservation consultant, participating in surveys
of historic buildings undertaken in compliance with California's
Office of Historic Preservation.
Mary Jo Ignoffo teaches U.S. history and topics in California
history at De Anza College in Cupertino, California. She resides
in Santa Clara with her husband and two children.
