"The book is enriched by the fact that Ms. Fenwick's son, Hugh, granted Ms. Schapiro exclusive rights to his mother's personal papers. 'This included unlimited access to the Fenwick attic, in which I found correspondence from Millicent's father, grandmother, and, of course, her, the author said. 'The most valuable items were her personal journals, photographs, and correspondence with her husband.'"
New York Times (3/9/03)
"An engaging new biography by Amy Schapiro, Millicent Fenwick: Her Way charts the unlikely career of the ambassador's daughter who became a pearl-wearing, pipe-smoking politico."
Vogue (April 2003)
"Amy Schapiro has written more than a biography of our late Representative Millicent Fenwick. She has ingeniously smuggled in a sociology lesson about life in the upper crust of the Garden State, a social milieu that outsiders cannot fathom....[Schapiro's] even-handed approach makes this one of the most admirable works of its kind that I have read in recent years."
Trenton Times (6/1/03)
"In her new biography of Fenwick, Millicent Fenwick: My Waya project that began as a college thesis Washington-area writer Amy Schapiro delves into Fenwick's life, providing a description far richer than the Lacey Davenport façade....It is refreshing to read a biography that is virtually free of authorial polemics."
http://www.hillnews.com/book_reviews/042303_fenwick.aspx
The Hill (April 23, 2003)
"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."
Library Journal (April 1, 2003)
"A new biography, the first ever on Fenwick, sheds new light on the life of Fenwick."
Courier-News (Bridgewater, NJ) March 17, 2003
"Provides rare insight into the life and career of one of America's most memorable politicians."
The Gazette (March 28, 2003)
"A decade after Fenwick's death, her legacy is explored in a full-scale biography."
Washington City Paper
"Though she served as the model for the impeccably proper Lacey Davenport in Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury, Fenwick preferred to be known as the hardworking congresswoman she was. Her biography is long overdue."
New Jersey Monthly (March 2003)
Author digs up congresswoman's ties to Superior, Wisconsin
Duluth News Tribune
September 6, 2003
http://aff.weatherbug.com/aff/default.asp?zcode=Z3702
People Reflect on Work of Innovative Politician
The Daily Targum
April 16, 2003
http://www.dailytargum.com/news/2003/04/16/News/People.Reflect.On.Work.Of.Innovative.Politician-418710.shtml