Save the date: David Abrams will be reading from “Fobbit” (Grove/Atlantic), his debut novel, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Nov. 2 in the Center for the Arts. David graduated from Jackson Hole High School in 1981. The Jackson Hole Writers Conference and Teton County Library have joined forces to bring him back to his hometown and to the site of his old high school (cue the “Welcome Back, Kotter” theme song) to read from what is being acclaimed as the definitive novel of the Iraq War and to talk about his path to publication.

After 20 years in the Army, David returned to the states to write “Fobbit,” which, in the satirical tradition of “Catch-22” and “MASH,” takes us into the chaotic world of Baghdad’s Forward Operating Base Triumph. The FOB is akin to the back office of the battlefield: It’s where people eat and sleep and where a lot of soldiers have what look suspiciously like office jobs.

David will be signing books after the reading. He hopes to see lots of old friends there and encourages everyone to help spread the word among friends and family.

Click here to read more about “Fobbit.”

With support from the county library, the Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum presents the third installment of its fall program series, “Local Authors Speak,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday in its classroom at 225 N. Cache St.  Author and fur trade expert Jim Hardee will give a presentation titled “Robert Stuart: 200 Years Ago in Jackson Hole Region,” commemorating the anniversary of the return trip of the Astorians through this area.

Setting out in June 1812 to return East after establishing John Jacob Astor’s fur trading post at Astoria on the Oregon coast, Stuart and six companions traveled by canoe, horseback and, ultimately, foot. Records indicate the party traversed Pierre’s Hole in Teton Valley, Idaho, in late September and entered Jackson Hole in early October.

From here they followed the mountains and rivers south through Hoback Canyon and continued southeasterly through the Green River Valley, where they came upon South Pass, the one place in the 3,000-mile-long Rocky Mountain chain that was passable by wagons.

Stuart and his traveling party were the first white men known to traverse what would become the gateway to the Far West along the Oregon Trail. In the decades to come, an estimated 300,000 emigrants followed this corridor on their way to the fertile farmlands of the Willamette Valley in Oregon and the gold  fields of California.

Stuart’s 10-month journey required courage, perseverance and resourcefulness in overcoming many hardships. Stuart had come to the Pacific Northwest to make his fortune in the fur trade, but during his stay in the area he emerged as a pioneering Western naturalist of the first rank, a perceptive student of Native American cultures and one of America’s most important, if least-known, explorers. Today, Stuart’s expedition has largely been forgotten, but it ranks as one of the great adventure odysseys of the 19th century.

Hardee is a historian who specializes in the fur trade of the Far West. He graduated from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., and has been director of the Sublette County Historical Society’s Fur Trade Research Center in Pinedale since 1998. He is the museum factor for The American Mountain Men and is the former president of the Jedediah Smith Society.

Hardee is editor of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal, an annual peer-reviewed collection of articles published by the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale. He is a nationally known speaker on fur trade topics and has published many research papers and articles on the subject.

Hardee will be available to sign his book, “Pierre’s Hole! The Fur Trade History of Teton Valley, Idaho,” after the program. Refreshments will be served during the gathering. For people who don’t belong to the Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum, a donation of $5 is suggested, which includes admission to the museum exhibition area before the program.

The fourth program of the local authors series will be held Nov. 13, when Earle Layser will share stories from his most recent book, “The Jackson Hole Settlement Chronicles: The Lives and Times of the First Settlers.” The final program in the series is scheduled for Dec. 11, when Gap Pucci will share stories from his book, “We Married Adventure.”

For information, contact Karen Reinhart at karen@jacksonholehistory.org or 307-733-2414.

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Ceci Clover writes weekly on the doings and doers in and around Jackson Hole. Submissions may be sent to circlingthesquare@hotmail.com or call 307-733-8348.