The College of Charleston Friends of the Library will host The Washington Post National Security Editor Peter Finn on Oct. 16, 2019, for a look at the dramatic story of Gertrude Legendre, a South Carolina heiress who joined the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the CIA, and became the first American woman in uniform taken prisoner on the Western front – until her escape from Nazi Germany.
Finn’s new book, A Guest of the Reich: The Story of American Heiress Gertrude Legendre’s Dramatic Captivity and Escape from Nazi Germany, is a propulsive account of a little-known chapter in the history of World War II, as well as a fascinating portrait of an extraordinary woman. Researched in part at the College’s Special Collections Department – which holds many of Legendre’s personal papers – the book will be available for sale and signing during the event.
Finn is the national security editor at The Washington Post and the co-author of The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle over a Forbidden Book, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction. The event, which will take place from 6-7:30 p.m. in the Rita Liddy Hollings Science Center (58 Coming St.) Main Auditorium, room 101, is free and open to the public.
This event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Library and the College of Charleston Southern Studies Program.
