Meet the Author: Ron Semple (“Black Tom: Terror on the Hudson” and “Her Morning Shadow”)

Come to the New Jersey Room of the Jersey City Free Public Library for a lively discussion of Jersey City during and after World War I – the early 20th century “immigrant city” of railroads and industry, the diverse communities that came here to find work and a new life, and the  rise of Frank Hague, who would dominate local and state politics for decades to come as Mayor of Jersey City.

Jersey City native son Ron Semple, former reporter for the Hudson Dispatch and city editor for the Jersey Journal, was “born in the Margaret Hague” and educated at Saint Peter’s Prep and St. Peter’s College (now University) before serving with the Marines in the Korean War.

Semple’s first novel, Black Tom: Terror on the Hudson, is set during that pivotal event; and his most recent novel, Her Morning Shadow, follows a Ukrainian immigrant who flees to Jersey City and then returns to Europe to fight for his new homeland in World War I and its aftermath. Copies will be available for purchase.