Awhile back my wife, Susan Collingwood Prescott, returned home from a trip to her parents with a large box of letters. We would end up spending many hours of an evening this past winter reading these fascinating letters out loud to each other. Susan's great grandfather, Joseph Collingwood, a captain in the Union Army of the Potomac during the Civil War, wrote almost a letter a day home to his wife Rebecca from the day his regiment set off from Plymouth, Massachusetts, in July of 1861 until the day he was mortally wounded in the Battle of Fredericksberg in December of 1862. We will share some of Captain Collingwood's moving and insightful account of this fateful time in our nation's history in an hour-long program, which includes a digital slide show of letters, old photos and maps. Most recently we have presented our Civil War letters program at three Washington state libraries.

Michael Seraphinoff, M.A., Ph.D.

languages and literature

Susan C. Prescott, B.A.

liberal arts

Michael Seraphinoff has a B.A. in anthropology, an M.A. in linguistics and a Ph.D. in literature. His main focus of interest in a 40 year career of study, research, writing and teaching has been Eastern Europe, mainly Russia, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. He is the author of a number of books and papers on languages, literature, history and cultures. These include literary translations and one original book-length work of fiction. Presently Michael works as a chief examiner for the International Baccalaureate Organization.

Susan C. Prescott is a fine artist and graphic designer with special interest in computer graphic design. She has worked most of her life in the printing and publishing industry. Presently she works as a freelance graphic designer from home. She designed the computer-generated slide show for the Civil War letters program that she and her husband Michael are currently offering.