Lauren Beffer, a Coalition member who must have learned a lot on the Coalition tours she took, is the author of a major new novel set in Buffalo 100 years ago. All the landmarks we know and love are there, and so are the people: John Albright, John Milburn, Ansley Wilcox, Frederick Law Olmsted, Bronson, Dexter Rumsey, and Elbert Hubbard.

This is the first post-Clinton novel: the protagonist is headmistress of a fictionalized Buffalo Seminary who meets Grover Cleveland at a party and … Let’s just say she is no Maria Halpin.

Arrangements were being made at press time with the publisher for a May book signing in Buffalo sponsored by the Coalition.