Flavored by the oddities of historic personalities and facts, Dr. Radway’s Sarsaparilla Resolvent is set in Bush Hill, Philadelphia, 1871—home to the Baldwin Locomotive Works and a massive, gothic prison. Acclaimed writer Beth Kephart captures the rhythms and smells of an extraordinary era as William Quinn and his Ma, Essie, grapple with life among terrible accidents, miraculous escapes, and shams masquerading as truth. 

 Beth Kephart teaches creative nonfiction at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the award-winning author of fifteen books, including Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River (Temple) and Dangerous Neighbors.