Millicent Fenwick: Her Way (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780813532318)

Amy Schapiro has written the first biography of Millicent Fenwick, the popular and colorful New Jersey congresswoman. Affectionately remembered as the pipe-smoking grandmother who served as the model for Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury character Lacey Davenport, Fenwick defied such simplistic expectations to become, in the words of Walter Cronkite, "the conscience of Congress."

Born in 1910 into comfortable circumstances, Fenwick faced tragedy at an early age when her mother was lost in the sinking of the Lusitania. Following an upper-class childhood and a failed marriage, she began a fourteen-year career at Vogue magazine.

In the 1960s, Fenwick became involved in the civil rights movement and took part in local and state politics in New Jersey. Blessed with striking good looks and a sharp wit, she cut a glamorous figure, rising quickly through the ranks of the state Republican Party at a time when most of her peers were retiring. When this colorful, outspoken figure--one of only five New Jersey women ever elected to Congress-- went to Washington in 1974 at age sixty-four, her victory was portrayed by the media as a "geriatric triumph."

Schapiro's extensive interviews with Fenwick's son, Hugh, who granted her exclusive rights to Fenwick's personal papers, oral histories, letters, and photographs, provide rare insight into the life and career of one of America's most memorable politicians.

Author: Amy Schapiro
ISBN-10: 0813532310
ISBN-13: 9780813532318
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Language: English
Published: 02/12/2003
Pages: 310
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.37lbs
Size: 9.36h x 6.32w x 1.01d

Review Citation(s):
Vogue 04/01/2003 pg. 254
Library Journal 04/01/2003 pg. 110
Women's Review of Books 05/01/2004 pg. 16