Happy book birthday to Book and Dagger by Elyse Graham! We have been so excited for this book to be out in the world, and now it finally is. This is the thrilling, untold story of the librarians and academics who became OSS spies, invented modern spycraft, and helped turn the tide of World War II.
Book and Dagger has been included in various roundups and had been getting fantastic praise. Check it out:
“Entertainingly conveyed, with great respect and deep appreciation for their ingenuity and drive, Graham's history is a powerful symphony for these unsung heroes whose professional skills and personal courage brought down the Nazi state. The modern intelligence community owes its existence to their rigor and resourcefulness. Readers fascinated by espionage will be eager to checkout Graham's fresh telling of the surprising story of the OSS.”
— Booklist ⭐️ review
“Thrilling...with a keen ear for narrative prose, Graham builds suspense and intrigue, and the book is a pulpy delight...Book and Dagger is a necessary reminder of the value of the humanities and of the freedom of information and ideas at a time when both of those things are under threat.”
— BookPage ⭐️ review
“An engaging study of wartime American intelligence...Graham makes a good case for studying the humanities as both an instrument of learning and a weapon of war. Bibliophiles with a taste for cloak-and-dagger work will enjoy this lively book.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“In her lively Book and Dagger, the historian Elyse Graham rescues a cast of scholar-spies from obscurity.”
— The New York Times
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In May, we hosted Elyse on Writers to Watch (along with three other phenomenal authors)! She talked about the book and took questions from the audience. Watch the whole video here:
If you're like us and can't get enough of Book and Dagger, read Elyse's essay "We Underfunded Our Libraries Once. It Almost Lost Us World War II." It's a brilliant piece that celebrates libraries and sounds the alarm about the dangers of defunding libraries.
Congratulations to Elyse on the publication of Book and Dagger!
