Helene Cooper recounts her Liberian childhood in lecture at Messiah College
August 19th, 2013
GRANTHAM, Pa. (Aug. 19, 2013) — Helene Cooper, current White House correspondent for the New York Times, will speak at Messiah College on Sept. 9 about her memoir, “The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood,” the common reading selection for all of Messiah’s first-year students. Cooper’s free lecture will be held in Parmer Hall of the Calvin and Janet High Center for Worship and Performing Art at 6 p.m. A booksigning will follow.
About Helene Cooper
Prior to her assignment with the New York Times, Cooper had been the diplomatic correspondent and an assistant editorial page editor for the New York Times. She also spent 12 years as a reporter and foreign correspondent at the Wall Street Journal.
Cooper’s memoir, “The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood,” chronicles her youth and coming of age in 1980 Liberia, a time of great political unrest. Cooper, a descendent of two Liberian dynasties, grew up in a mansion on the sea and enjoyed the trappings of wealth and advantage. In 1980 when a group of soldiers staged a coup d’etat, the Coopers were forced to flee Liberia, leaving family members and loved ones behind. While in America, Cooper discovered her love of journalism. She traveled the world and reported from every part of the globe—except her home Africa—until a harrowing experience in 2003 led her back to her home country. This story captures Cooper’s long voyage home.
About Messiah College
Messiah College, a private Christian college of the liberal and applied arts and sciences, enrolls 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Established in 1909, the primary campus is located in Grantham, Pa., near the state capital of Harrisburg.
