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Overview
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 many believe served as the model for Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury character Lacey Davenport, Fenwick transcended that stereotype 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 1975 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.
Amy Schapiro is a native New Jerseyan who currently lives in the Washington, D.C., area and works at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Synopsis
Fenwich (1910-92) was elected to the US House of Representatives as a Republican from New Jersey at age 64. Schapir, a native of New Jersey who works for the US Department of Justice in Washington, offers the first biography of her, drawing on extensive interviews with her son. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Library Journal
Four-term Congress member Millicent Fenwick, the patrician descendant of Colonial landholders, hailed from wealthy Bernardsville, NJ. She had an unhappy family life and spent 14 years as a writer and editor at Vogue. Then the liberal Republican activist began a successful political career on the local school board, advancing through state offices until, in 1974 at the age of 64, she won election to Congress. Fenwick focused her efforts on civil rights for African Americans and women and protections for farm workers and prisoners; she also played a signal role in bringing the suppression of Soviet dissidents to public attention. Having lost a Senate race in 1982 after New Jersey was redistricted, Fenwick was appointed to a United Nations post by Ronald Reagan. Fenwick, who was the model for the Doonesbury character Lacey Davenport, is best remembered as an idiosyncratic, witty, pipe-smoking aristocrat of impeccable integrity. Schapiro, a social science analyst for the U.S. Department of Justice, adequately recounts Fenwick's past in abundant detail. Of interest chiefly to New Jersey libraries and collections devoted to the study of politics.-Cynthia Harrison, George Washington Univ., Washington, DC Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.