'Wicked' author heads to Chesapeake Thursday

CHESAPEAKE

Therese Bigelow has done something very “Wicked” for Chesapeake.

Thanks to a longtime friendship, the Chesapeake Public Library’s assistant director is bringing the best-selling author Gregory Maguire to the Central Library for a free Thursday program.

“It was a friend and family favor,” Bigelow said about Mcguire, the author of “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” an adult fantasy novel that takes a revisionist prequel view of the beloved classic book and film, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”

Maguire’s book has become an international best-seller after it was transformed into the successful Broadway hit musical, “Wicked,” now enjoying a current three-week run at Norfolk’s Chrysler Hall.

Maguire is as good behind a podium as he is with a word processor.

“I’ve heard him speak many, many times, and I’ve always left satisfied,” Bigelow said. “He gives entertaining comments as well as food for thought. He’ll give a rich presentation, and he’ll read from some of his works.”

Bigelow became friends with Maguire in 1977 at a Simmons (College) Summer Institute in Children’s Literature in Boston. He later become professor and co-director of Simmons’ Center for the Study of Children’s Literature, and, in 1987, co-founded Children’s Literature New England.

“I was working at the time as a children’s librarian in Hampton and I was an M.A. wannabe in children’s literature,” she said. “We got to know each other better the following year and would see each other every year thereafter. He was living in Boston at the time teaching and working to become a writer.”

Bigelow said she still teases him about his writing habits.

“I used to sit next to him and I would see him writing one of his children’s books in a spiral notebook,” she explained. “I asked him if he ever edited that stuff in his notebook, and he told me he never edited his work. So to this day I always joke with him and ask him if he’s ever gotten around to editing any of his books.”

Bigelow said Maguire began his career penning children’s books, having written more than a dozen. But soon he began to turn his attention to older readers.

“He was always fascinated with the Oz stories and at some point he began writing fractured fairy tales for adults,” she said. “He had always been curious about Elphaba’s (Wicked Witch of the West) role. He thought she got a raw deal.”

He found success with his children’s works, “The Hamlet Chronicles” and “What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy,” over time, but his adult fairy tales reaped him the most fame.

After a slow start “Wicked’s” popularity began to soar like a Flying Monkey thanks to the musical. Soon Maguire found success with other revisionist examinations of Oz such as “A Lion Among Men” and “Son of a Witch,” along with classic fairy tales, including “Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister” and “Mirror, Mirror.”

Maguire’s appearance, which is free and requires no tickets or registration, will be held in the Central Library’s re-configured and spacious main area.

Seats will be in place, as will a rented sound system. Patrons will even be seated around the balcony-like mezzanine area.

“He’ll give an enjoyable, and entertaining, talk,” Bigelow assured. “People will leave feeling a bit richer.”

Eric Feber, 222-5203, eric.feber@pilotonline.com