Books in the ‘Burgh: Heart and Soul, Mary Ellen Butler

“Heart and Soul: The Remarkable Courtship and Marriage of Josh and Virginia Craft Rose,” published by the History Center, delivers the biographies of two black students enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh during the Great Depression. By a chance meeting, the working-class Joshua Rose and affluent Virginia Craft began a five-year courtship at the Centre Avenue YMCA in Pittsburgh—the Harlem of Pennsylvania. Through the revelations of 153 letters between the pair assembled by Butler (Rose and Craft’s daughter), readers discover that the young man is catapulted into the orbit of a family that descends from two of the most daring and renowned escaped slaves—an extended family whose bloodlines include a U.S. president among other famous Americans. Mary Ellen Butler will be available to sign copies of “Heart and Soul: The Remarkable Courtship and Marriage of Josh and Virginia Craft Rose.” Copies will be available for purchase. Admission to this event is free but does not include access to museum exhibitions. Advance registration online is requested.