by The History Reader
Women’s History Month is a time for us to take a moment to appreciate all the incredible achievements of women across the globe. This month, we’re highlighting five remarkable books coming out this year about a range of women throughout history. Some are triumphant stories of trailblazing women, while others are tragic tales, rife with controversy, sorrow, and loss.
First to the Front: The Untold Story of Dickey Chapelle, Trailblazing Female War Correspondent
by Lorissa Rinehart; Hardcover On Sale: 7/11/2023
Not all heroes wear capes. Some carry cameras. From World War II through the early days of Vietnam, photojournalist Dickey Chapelle got her story by any means necessary as one of the first female war correspondents.
Chapelle overcame discrimination both on the battlefield and at home, with much of her work ultimately buried from the public eye—until now. While she immortalized the subjects she reported on, this book tells her remarkable life, and what better time to learn of it than Women’s History Month?
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Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson
by Sally H. Jacobs; Hardcover On Sale: 8/15/2023
Get ready to read the first full biography of Althea Gibson, the young woman from Harlem who broke the color barrier in tennis with her remarkable skill on the court.
A street-savvy young woman from Harlem, Gibson was about as alien in that rarefied white world as an aspiring tennis champion could be. In her tattered jeans and short-cropped hair, Gibson drew stares from both sides of the color fence. But her astonishing skill on the court soon eclipsed all of that, as she eventually became one of the greatest tennis champions the United States has ever produced. Althea tells the heart-rending story of this pioneer, trailblazer, champion, and inspiration to a generation of future female athletes.
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Magnificent Rebel: Nancy Cunard in Jazz Age Paris
by Anne de Courcy; Hardcover On Sale: 4/11/2023
Anne de Courcy examines the controversial life of legendary beauty, writer, and rich girl Nancy Cunard during her thirteen years in Jazz-Age Paris. 1920s Paris was bursting with talent, and at the center was the gorgeous, seductive English socialite Nancy Cunard, scion of the famous shipping line. Her lovers were legion, but this book focuses on five of the most significant, as well as a lifelong friendship.
Magnificent Rebel is a nuanced portrait of a complex woman, set against the backdrop of the City of Light during one of its most important and fascinating decades.
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Jackie: Public, Private, Secret
by J. Randy Taraborrelli; Hardcover On Sale: 7/18/2023
Based on hundreds of interviews with friends, family, and lovers over a thirty-year period—as well as previously unreleased material from the JFK Library—Kennedy historian J. Randy Taraborrelli paints an unforgettable new portrait of a woman whose flaws and contradictions only serve to make her even more iconic. “I have three lives,” Jackie told a former lover, “public, private and secret.” In this revealing biography, readers will become intimately familiar with all three.
Twenty-nine years after her death and sixty years after the assassination of President Kennedy, Jackie delivers the last word on one of the most famous women in the world. A woman who should be remembered not only this month but forever.
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Heiresses: The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies
by Laura Thompson; Trade Paperback On Sale: 4/4/2023
This intimate and integral book about remarkable heiresses throughout history, and the often tragic truth beneath the gilded surface, returns in paperback in April.
Heiresses tells the stories of million-dollar babies and is about the lives of the rich, who—as F. Scott Fitzgerald said—are ‘different’. But it is also a bigger story about how all women fought their way to equality, and sometimes even found autonomy and fulfillment.
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