Join Paul Dorpat and Jean Sherrard for an illustrated book discussion of “Seattle Now & Then: The Historic Hundred.”

Paul Dorpat and Jean Sherrard’s new coffee-table book showcases the most compelling and essential of the more than 1,800 “Seattle Now & Then” photo-history columns that Dorpat has produced for the Sunday magazine of “The Seattle Times” for more than 36 years, since January 1982.

The book covers views from all directions throughout Seattle, highlighting its native roots and earliest days as a city (and its earliest photographs), and includes a special, four-foot-wide gatefold that reveals the city’s massive growth from the prospect of Queen Anne Hill.

Dramatic images comparing “then” to “now” explore the city’s regrades, bridges, thoroughfares and countless Seattle landmarks. The Great Seattle Fire, the Gold Rush, Pike Place Market, the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition and the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair get attention, as do breathtaking panoramas, all in a size and clarity rarely seen.

Seattle public historian Paul Dorpat and co-author Jean Sherrard, who has served as Dorpat’s “now” photographer for the past 12 years, will be available after the talk to personally inscribe books.

This event at the Southwest branch library is part of the Words, Writers & West Seattle series which features writers connected to the Duwamish Peninsula. Programs are held monthly on the second Thursday evenings. Presented in partnership with the Southwest Seattle Historical Society.

Library events and programs are free and everyone is welcome. Registration is not required.

Space is limited at library events. Please come early to make sure you get a seat. Due to the fire code, we can’t exceed the maximum capacity for our rooms.