Author Mary Jo Sonntag will share “Write, If You Live to Get There Tracing Westward Expansion Through 120 Years of Family Letters” on Aug. 13 at 6pm.

It tells the story of the Phillips family’s westward migration from Vermont to Northern California told through a collection of letters. They talk of the family’s entrepreneurial spirit and how they combined their business and hospitable instincts to build prominent resorts in the Lake Tahoe region at Phillips Station, Rubicon Springs and Meeks Bay.

The free talk is at the South Lake Tahoe Library, 1000 Rufus Allen Blvd.