Amy Schapiro discusses
Millicent Fenwick:
Her Way
Event Date: April 1, 2003
The first biography about former congresswoman
and U.N. ambassador Millicent Fenwick was
featured in a presentation by Amy Schapiro
the author of Millicent Fenwick: Her Way
(Rutgers University Press, 2003).
A popular and outspoken Republican from New
Jersey, who was 64 years old when she was
elected to Congress 1974, Millicent Fenwick
is affectionately remembered as the pipe-smoking
grandmother who served as the model for
Garry Trudeau's "Doonesbury" character Lacy
Davenport. According to Schapiro's biography,
Fenwick defied such characterizations to become
in the words of Walter Cronkite, "the conscience
of Congress".
Schapiro, who is also from
New Jersey, is a social science
analyst in the U.S. Department of
Justice. Her 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 American's most memorable
politicians.
The Center for the Book was established in 1977
to use the resources and prestige of the Library
of Congress to stimulate public interest in books,
reading and literacy. This program, part of the
Center for the Book's Books and Beyond program
was co-sponsored by the Visitor Services Office.
Center for the Book
Visitor Services Division