On February 21, The Lit Salon will feature author Ronald Drabkin whose debut book Beverly Hills Spy: The Double Agent-War Hero Who Helped Japan Attack Pearl Harbor reveals the unbelievable and untold story of Frederick Rutland—a debonair British WWI hero, flying ace, fixture of Los Angeles society, and friend of Golden Age Hollywood stars—who flipped to become a spy for Japan in the lead-up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Aviation cocktail will be served as a welcome cocktail and a musical performance by The Brownstone Trio, will open the event, followed by an hour of conversation and audience Q&A hosted by author and journalist Michelle Young.  A book signing and mingling with complimentary drinks will conclude the event.

The Lit Salon is an intimate literary salon set to candlelight inside Maison Brooklyn, a lovingly restored, historic 1890s townhouse. Guests will be asked to remove their shoes inside the private home, so bring your best sock game!

Early bird tickets are $35 with the opportunity to purchase an autographed and dedicated copy of the book. Space is limited. Livestream tickets ($10) can be purchased here, or are free for Untapped New York Insiders. All sales final. No tickets will be sold at the door.

The Lit Salon is produced by Maison Brooklyn, with special partners Aerangis, Ode à la Rose (a same-day NYC flower delivery service), Fort Hamilton Distillery and Untapped New York.

Ronald Drabkin is the author of Beverly Hills Spy and peer-reviewed articles on Japanese espionage. His obsession with espionage history started when he was as a child in Los Angeles, where he vaguely understood that his father had been working for the US military in counterintelligence. Later he discovered that his grandfather had also been in “the business,” and it drove a voyage of discovery into previously classified documents on three continents. His career prior to writing was at early stage startups in the US, where he was an early adopter of Google and Facebook advertising. He currently lives in Tokyo.

Michelle Young is the author of Secret Brooklyn, Secret New York: Hidden Bars & Restaurants, Broadway, and the forthcoming narrative non-fiction book, The Art Spy, to be published by HarperOne, an imprint of Harper Collins. The Art Spy was Publisher’s Weekly Deal of the Week in August 2022. Michelle is also the founder of Untapped New York,, a Professor of Architecture at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and a scholar in the New York Public Library’s Allen Room. Michelle’s writing and photography have been published in The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Hyperallergic, The Forward, Business Insider, Curbed, Metropolis Magazine and more. She was featured on the History Channel production The Engineering That Built the World, Netflix’s Stay Here, Smithsonian Channel’s Searching for Secrets, PBS’ 10 That Changed America, National Geographic’s Strange Truths, and Tell Me Something I Don’t Know with Stephen Dubner.