Contact: Maridith Geuder
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A Swedish-born author who has won critical acclaim for her biography of a powerful French noblewoman will be the first guest Feb. 16 for a new Mississippi State lecture series.
Leonie Frieda, now a London resident, will discuss her study of Catherine de Medici during a 4 p.m. public program in the John Grisham Room of Mitchell Memorial Library. She is helping inaugurate the Distinguished Speakers Series co-sponsored by the university's Institute for the Humanities, Office of Research and College of Arts and Sciences.
A native of Italy and contemporary of England's Queen Elizabeth I, de Medici (1519-89) married into French royalty and played a major role in the French court during more than three decades at the height of the Renaissance. She became an accomplished political strategist who continues to be remembered for her ruthlessness in maintaining a power base for her children--three of whom became French kings.
Frieda, a former model, was educated in Britain, Germany and France and is fluent in five languages. She began the background for "Catherine de Medici: A Biography" (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2004, UK) after concluding a successful career as co-owner of a major European recording studio.
Being released in the U.S. this year, Frieda's first book drew immediate critical acclaim in her adopted homeland. London's Literary Review called it "an enthralling book"; The Spectator, "an engrossing tale, compellingly narrated."
British historian Jeremy Black will headline the second DLS program of the 2005 spring season when he visits campus March 22.
For more on the MSU Distinguished Lecture Series, telephone (662) 325-2646.