Starry and Restless - by Julia Cooke (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The page-turning story of three women reporters and the way they changed the world, work, and journalism.

Rebecca West, Emily "Mickey" Hahn, Martha Gellhorn. Congo, the American South, Cuba, the lively salons of Shanghai, Yugoslavia on the brink of World War II, the shot-riddled streets of Spain, Hong Kong under Japanese occupation, Germany and Italy at war, post-Blitz London, McCarthy-era Mexico, and beyond. These women didn't just bear witness to the great changes of the twentieth century, they didn't just write the backstory to wars that roused their readers to support, they transformed the very world they were describing, and the way it was understood.

Each writer traversed the globe, searching for stories they would then dispatch to The New Yorker, The Times (London), The New York Times, The New Republic, The Atlantic Monthly, Collier's, and Vogue. They often traveled alone, sometimes teaming up with other women reporters, sometimes with their husbands along for the ride. They sneaked onto the front lines when they were forbidden, interviewed civilians to gather color and detail. They wrote novels to pay the bills and articles to explain the world to itself. Over the course of their intertwining lives, they became mothers and friends, took joy in each other's successes.

Julia Cooke's Starry and Restless is the story of three women whose curiosity, grit, and ambition expanded the possibilities for women and meaningful work.

Review Quotes

"In a rollicking tale of three intrepid female correspondents, Julia Cooke takes readers on a thrilling journey. We see what it took for these brave women who covered conflicts around the world to fend off societal pressures and willfully, sometimes recklessly, always resourcefully, forge their own way."
--Julie Satow, author of When Women Ran Fifth Avenue

A richly narrated triple-threat biography, Starry and Restless reads like historical fiction and reclaims three brave and restless women who might otherwise have been lost to history. It is alive with urgency, and so vivid it nearly breathes--you can't help but think of its relevance during these troubling times."
--Susannah Cahalan, author of The Acid Queen

"Julia Cooke's stunning book reclaims a heritage for narrative nonfiction, war, and travel writing. Starry and Restless is an exciting, fascinating, and indispensable contribution to the story of twentieth-century writing."
--Anna Funder, author of Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life

"If your image of the foreign correspondent of the 1930s and '40s is a man with a fedora and a cigar, think again. And if your image of the New Journalism is something first created by Tom Wolfe and his imitators decades later, think again there too. Julia Cooke gives us a lively introduction to three remarkable women--Rebecca West, Emily Hahn, and Martha Gellhorn--who each played an underappreciated role in reinventing nonfiction storytelling."
--Adam Hochschild, author of American Midnight

About the Author