Personalize Your Library Experience

When you choose your preferred branches and age groups, the site will automatically filter the content to match your selections.

Select Your Branches

Select Your Age Groups

This information will be saved as a cookie, and cannot be connected to a library login or transferred between computers

icon of stars; highlighting that you can open the select favorite branch overlay Save & Close
Return to All Blog Posts
Back to Top

Author, Journalist Jason Fagone Dives Into the Jazz Age to Shine a Spotlight On Puzzle-Solving Heroine

About Blog Post Feb 24, 2022 by SCLSNJ
On March 10 from 7-8 p.m., author and west coast journalist Jason Fagone will present a virtual book discussion exploring his book, “The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies.” The program, hosted in partnership with the Somerset County Library System of New Jersey (SCLSNJ), will explore the life of Elizebeth Friedman, a “puzzle-solving heroine.” “In 2013, I was reading about the life of William Friedman, the godfather of the National Security Agency,” said Fagone. “He’s a famous American codebreaker, and these articles and books mentioned that William’s wife was also a codebreaker, which I thought was interesting - married codebreakers. I was curious to know more about Elizebeth, but I couldn’t find much information. So, one day I drove down to the George Marshall Foundation Library in Virginia, which holds the Friedman papers and has preserved 22 boxes of Elizebeth’s letters, diaries, and code worksheets. I started reading this stuff, and pretty soon, my heart was pounding. I realized I had stumbled onto an incredible story about a puzzle-solving heroine. The more I read, the wilder the story became. From there, I was obsessed.” Fagone continued, “Elizebeth got her start as a poet, not a mathematician. She came from a small town and transformed herself into a legend. When she was still in her twenties, she helped to invent a new American science of codebreaking. She then applied that science to track gangsters during Prohibition and hunt Nazi spies in World War II. For a time in the 1930s, she even became famous, testifying in sensational rum trials; to her horror, newspapers called her ‘the pretty little woman who protects the United States.’ Until that moment, no one in her circle of friends knew that she was living a kind of double life — they just thought she was a fairly normal mother and housewife.” Authors write for a variety of reasons. Some authors hope to inspire and some hope to educate. Fagone’s goal in writing this book was awareness of an almost forgotten woman.  “After reading my book, I hope people come away with some sense of how exceptional Elizebeth was — her mind, her daring adventures, her contributions to the science of secret writing, her puzzle-solving feats during the wars,” said Fagone. “There was just no one like her.” If you loved “The Woman Who Smashed Codes,” here are more books to explore: Virtually meet author Jason Fagone: https://sclsnj.libnet.info/event/5089302.
chat loading...