FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Mary Lois Timbes, author of “The Fair Hope of Heaven, A Hundred Years After Utopia,” will introduce the paperback version at Page & Palette Bookstore, 32 S. Section St. in Fairhope, on Saturday, Nov. 21, at 2 p.m.

Timbes makes the history of Fairhope amusing and intriguing by defining the community in the context of its utopian roots. We meet not only the serious-minded reformers who founded Fairhope, but also a parade of intellectuals and nonconformists who gravitated to the bayside retreat throughout the 20th century.

The book contains updates on the current atmosphere of Fairhope, addressing the city’s present reality as a retirement community and tourist destination, at the same time relating it to its utopian past. It includes historical information about the early single tax colony and character sketches of some of its colorful inhabitants in the 20th century.

The result is a book with anecdotes about  some of the eccentric citizens of Fairhope in recent decades, including Winifred Duncan, Craig Sheldon and Dian Arnold, as well as biographical information about such intellects as Upton Sinclair and Clarence Darrow, both of whom spent time in Fairhope in its early days.

There is a wealth of information about the history of Fairhope, its founder E.B. Gaston and the history and status of the School of Organic Education, founded by Marietta Johnson in Fairhope in 1907.

In “The Fair Hope of Heaven,” we meet muckraker Upton Sinclair, who lived in Fairhope as he was writing “Love’s Pilgrimage” in 1910 and enrolled his son in Marietta Johnson’s fledgling radical School of Organic Education.

We find  none other than Clarence Darrow resting in Fairhope during his lecture tour of the South. Here we also come across some of the obscure and unusual people who contributed to the bohemian flavor that Fairhope  enjoyed in mid-century.

The author includes such offbeat residents as Dian Stitt Arnold, who lived in Fairhope from the late 1950s, enriching her unique life with a love of animals and family and dressing like a cowgirl in a miniskirt until her untimely death in 1963, and Willard Edwards, who uprooted his family from Fairhope in the early 1930s and moved them to Russia under Stalin’s rule.

Through this book we come to see the city  as it  used to be and learn some of the reasons why — as well as what there is about it makes so many still seek it out as their hope of heaven on earth in the 21st century.

Timbes, who was raised in Fairhope, is uniquely qualified to tell the stories of the town as it was. A 1958 graduate of the Marietta Johnson School of Organic Education, she knew many of the eccentric townspeople of that era and has researched those who came before while she worked as director of the Marietta Johnson Museum.

She now resides in Hoboken, N.J.

The author will exclusively sign all books purchased from Page & Palette.

For more information, call (251) 928-5295, or visit www.pageandpalette.com.