Author Jennifer Chiaverini
Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker by bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini is an expansive historical novel that follows one freedwoman’s journey from simple seamstress to the First Lady’s confidante. The book opens in 1860 with the election of President Abraham Lincoln and sweeps through a tumultuous time in history, from the beginnings of the Civil War through the struggle to hold the Union together, and then to the end of Mrs. Lincoln’s days.
Elizabeth “Lizzie” Keckley won her freedom and that of her son in 1852 as a result of her sewing skill and is eventually awarded the job of personal assistant to the First Lady, creating her gowns and dressing her for formal occasions. Soon an intimate friendship develops and Lizzie becomes a trusted witness to the Lincolns’ lives with a front row seat in the halls of history. Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker is an historically accurate tale that tells the story of the extraordinary relationship between two women, one black and one white, during the height of the Civil War.
Chiaverini is a Madison-based New York Times bestselling author best known for her Elm Creek Quilts series. She is also the creator of five collections of quilt patterns inspired by her novels. A graduate of both the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago, she has taught at Edgewood College and Penn State. Chiaverini will speak at the Racine Public Library on Thursday, Jan. 24 at 6:30 p.m. at an event sponsored by Boswell Book Co.
