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.