EX POST FACTO

EX POST FACTO is an exploration of the richness and relevance of the Latin language, and an inspiring account of finding engagement, enjoyment and purpose through learning something new and challenging.

When Ann Patty was let go from her job in 2008 at age 58, she felt like she had lost her identity and her purpose in life. Lonely, anxious, adrift, living in the country north of New York City, and seeking to somehow recover her early obsession with words, she hit on the idea of beginning a serious study of Latin, a language her mother had excelled in, and began auditing courses in Latin at Vassar College, hoping to reinvent herself and feed her restless, word-loving brain.

In Ex Post Facto, Patty weaves elements of her personal life into the confounding grammar of Latin to chronicle not only the slog but also the exuberance of trying to master a new language. In four years of course work she studies Latin grammar, Roman history and epigraphy, and the works of Catullus, Ovid, Horace, Lucretius, and Virgil. On the way she encounters a colorful, impassioned cast of teachers, students, and classicists who keep Latin alive, as well as discovering the similarities between Lucretius and Zen Buddhism, and realizing that Latin study can be another form of meditation, of slowing down.

Ann Patty worked in New York publishing for over thirty years. She was the founder and publisher of The Poseidon Press, and an executive editor at Crown and Harcourt. Among the many authors she worked with in her career were Yann Martel, V.C. Andrews, George R.R. Martin, Michael Moore, Mary Gaitskill, Ursula Hegi, Patrick McGrath, and Stephen Millhauser. She currently teaches kids Latin at a library in Red Hook, New York, as well as continuing to audit courses in Latin at Vassar College.