Media Release: New Gionfriddo Book "Good Night, Dear Hart, Good Night"

“GOOD NIGHT, DEAR HART, GOOD NIGHT”, THE NEW JEANNIE AND MARK GIONFRIDDO BOOK, PREMIERES ON NOVEMBER 16 AT A READING AND BOOKSIGNING AT THE ODYSSEY BOOKSHOP IN SOUTH HADLEY, MA

Good Night, Dear Hart, Good Night: the new historical non-fiction book by Jeannie and Mark Gionfriddo, will be released on the Epigraph imprint at a reading and booksigning at The Odyssey Book Shop, 9 College Street, South Hadley, MA on Wednesday, November 16 at 7PM.

When Jeannie Gionfriddo and her late husband Roy purchased their family home in Holyoke, MA in 1964, there was one seller’s condition: the tenant, Hart Lester Allen, in the adjoining apartment, had to have the right to live there as long as she wanted. As the Gionfriddos got to know Mrs. Allen, she shared her personal history.

Allen was the widow of Massachusetts Bank Commissioner Joseph C. Allen, who investigated and brought to justice the notorious criminal Charles Ponzi, whose “Ponzi Scheme” robbed many people of their life savings. Jeannie Gionfriddo, a columnist at the Holyoke Sun, began to chronicle Allen’s story. Her son, Mark, assisted with the research. But after a draft or two, they put the book aside. When Bernie Madoff’s financial crimes made headlines, the Gionfriddos revised Good Night Dear Hart Good Night, which is part back story of a bank commissioner taking on a powerful criminal, and part love story of the woman who supported him along the way, set in Western Massachusetts cities and towns including Holyoke and Springfield.

Mother and son Jeannie Gionfriddo and Mark Gionfriddo still live in the Holyoke house where Good Night, Dear Hart, Good Night takes place; she in the main house, and he in the apartment, where Hart Lester Allen once resided. Jeannie Gionfriddo has authored cook books and wrote the Holyoke Sun’s food columns. Mark Gionfriddo is a member of the music faculty at Mount Holyoke College, creator of The Big Broadcast, a recreation of a 1940’s radio show with the Jazz Ensembles at Mount Holyoke College, and a music director at The Berkshire Theatre Group, where he recently conducted Beauty and The Beast..

Copies of Good Night, Dear Hart, Good Night will be on sale at The Odyssey Book Shop in The Village Commons in South Hadley, MA. For details on the Gionfriddo book, visit www.markgionfriddo.com or visit the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/goodnightdearhart.

Good Night, Dear Hart, Good Night

by Jeannie Gionfriddo and Mark Gionfriddo

Epigraph Books

Hardcover: 978-1-944037-34-5

Paperback: 978-1-944037-33-8.