Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade

About the Organizer –Woman's Club of Wisconsin

Woman’s Club of Wisconsin and Boswell Book Company, with the collaboration of Alliance Française de Milwaukee present a special, ticketed luncheon featuring New York Times bestseller Janet Skeslien Charles, author of Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade, a brilliant new novel based on the true story of Jessie Carson, the American librarian who changed the literary landscape of France, and Anne Morgan, daughter of J.P. Morgan and founder of the American Committee for Devastated France. This is the author’s only Milwaukee tour appearance.

Each ticket costs $75 and ticket fee, and each includes admission, a French lunch with a savory chicken crepe, frisee salad and apple tarte, and a signed copy of Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade. Reception begins at 11:15, followed by lunch at 12, with the author talk to follow. Personalized inscriptions are available.

Based on the extraordinary little-known history of the women who received the Croix de Guerre medal for courage under fire, Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade is a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit, the power of literature, and ultimately the courage it takes to make a change.

1918: As the Great War rages, Jessie Carson takes a leave of absence from the New York Public Library to work for the American Committee for Devastated France. Upon arrival, Jessie strives to establish something that the French have never seen—children’s libraries. She turns ambulances into bookmobiles and trains the first French female librarians. Then she disappears.

1987: When NYPL librarian and aspiring writer Wendy Peterson stumbles across a passing reference to Jessie Carson in the archives, she becomes consumed with learning her fate. In her obsessive research, she discovers that she and the elusive librarian have more in common than their work at New York’s famed library, but she has no idea their paths will converge in surprising ways across time.

Janet Skeslien Charles is the author of The Paris Library, a NYT best seller. Her shorter work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, The Sydney Morning Herald, LitHub, and more.

This event is not to be missed at the Woman’s Club of Wisconsin with its historic connections to Miss Morgan and her family!

Reservation deadline is May 1. No day of event walk-ins or refunds possible.

Valet parking is available. WCW Club members can call 414-276-5170 to make reservations using club accounts.

Host or Publisher Woman's Club of Wisconsin