“You couldn’t invent Millicent Fenwick….She was unique. The best writers of fiction might have struggled to make her believable but they would have failed,” according to former New Jersey Governor Thomas H. Kean.

Author Amy Schapiro has written the first biography of Millicent Fenwick, the popular and colorful New Jersey congresswoman, and she will participate in the Hoboken Museum’s book club on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 4 pm, following her lecture on Oct. 18 in our #NJWomenMakeHistory lecture series, celebrating historic New Jersey women in this centennial year of American women’s right to vote. 

Books are available for purchase in the Museum gift shop and at our online store. 

All of these discussions will be held online and are free to attend, thanks to a generous grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. Reservations are required for participation. Visit https://bit.ly/NJWomenMakeHistory to reserve a spot. A Zoom link will be shared about an hour before each discussion with everyone who signed up.

Join the club!

Remaining book discussions:

• Amy Schapiro, Millicent Fenwick: Her Way, Saturday, October 24 at 4 pm
• Amy Gilman Srebnick, The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers, Saturday, November 14 at 4 pm

Join the discussion with author Amy Schapiro about Millicent Fenwick, an accomplished descendent of Hoboken founders, the Stevens family. 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 aboard the Lusitania. Following an upper-class childhood at boarding school and a failed marriage, she began a 14-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 64, her victory was portrayed by the media as a “geriatric triumph.”

Amy 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.

Schapiro’s interest in Millicent Fenwick was sparked in college when she wrote her senior thesis on Rep. Fenwick. It was in the course of her research that she was surprised to learn no biography had been written on her subject. Although the pair never met, they did exchange letters pertaining to Schapiro’s college thesis. A few months after the project was completed, Fenwick died and an idea was born — to write the first biography of Mrs. Fenwick. This was made possible in large measure by Hugh Fenwick, Millicent’s son, who granted Schapiro exclusive authorization rights to his mother’s private papers, letters, journals, and photographs, without which a biography on Millicent Fenwick would be incomplete.

Schapiro, a native of New Jersey, has spoken around the country at book stores, universities, book festivals, writer’s conferences, the Library of Congress, and the National Archives. She has been featured on several radio programs and has appeared on C-Span’s BookTV. She currently lives in Washington, D.C., and works at the U.S. Department of Justice.

The remaining lecture series schedule: (all events begin at 4 pm) 

• Saturday, 11/7* – The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers, by Amy Gilman Srebnick 
• Sunday, 11/15 – Martha & Caroline Stevens, by Eileen Lynch 
• Sunday, 11/22 – Anne Ryan: Her Art and Life, by Nancy Nikkal
• Sunday, 12/6 – NJ Women Poets Make History, with live readings by 6 NJ poets 
• Sunday, 12/13 – An Interview with Maria Pepe

The lecture series tickets are available at https://bit.ly/NJWomenMakeHistory.

(Most lectures are both online and with limited in-person seating, except Nov. 7, which is online only*)

In addition to a generous Action Grant of $16,500 from the NJ Council for the Humanities to fund this lecture series, the Hoboken Historical Museum received a $5,000 COVID-19 grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the federal CARES Act. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this [publication, program, exhibition, film, etc.] do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.