The Empress and Mrs. Conger: The Uncommon Friendship of Two Women and Two Worlds

Grant Hayter-Menzies will give a book signing at the China Institute in New York City.

In anticipation of the centennial of the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, China Institute is hosting an exclusive talk and pre-publication book signing of The Empress and Mrs. Conger by noted biographer, Grant Hayter-Menzies.

The Empress and Mrs. Conger traces the parallel lives of Empress Dowager Cixi and the wife of an American ambassador, Sarah Pike Conger, which converged to alter their perspectives of each other and each other’s worlds: Mrs. Conger’s love for China through her efforts to befriend, learn from, and help Chinese women; the Dowager’s appreciation, through Mrs. Conger, of the need for reform and the usefulness of cooperation with the West for the good of China. Using unpublished letters, diaries and photographs, and benefiting from the cooperation and assistance of relatives of Sarah Conger and the Empress Dowager, The Empress and Mrs. Conger recreates a world of the past while celebrating a friendship between East and West for the present and future to aspire to.

Before turning to biography full time, Grant Hayter- Menzies served as art and music critic for newspapers and magazines in the U.S. and Canada. He is the author of several books including the first biography of Chinese-American author and personality Princess Der Ling, published by Hong Kong University Press in 2008.