The Bonnet Book by Nancy Menees Hardesty
Publication date: August 1st, 2020
Synopsis:
Sent away on an orphan train at fourteen, smart and lovely Blanche Spencer lands in St. Louis, Missouri as a nursemaid, wearing rags and sleeping in a pantry. To rise above her servitude, she begins a self-education program. A trade booth at the 1904 World's Fair and a Cobden, Illinois apprenticeship launch her into a hat-making career, which she documents in a tiny diary, The Bonnet Book.
An early example of self-determination and girl power, Blanche -- now Bonnie -- travels alone to the Wild West, where she's presented with the chance of a lifetime and the possibility of love -- both rife with challenges that test her drive, purpose in life, and sense of self.
The Bonnet Book diary and other historical items in the novel are real-life touchstones in the gripping, inspiring story based on the life of the author's grandmother.
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About the Author:
Nancy Menees Hardesty, born in Illinois and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, moved to San Francisco, California in 1969. Nancy spent six years researching and writing her debut novel, The Bonnet Book. She had various family journals and artifacts and the extensive help of her mother, Mary Kay Menees, who was the daughter-in-law of the book's protagonist, Bonnie Spencer. The tiny "Bonnet Book" of hat sketches and the wooden hat-supply trunk featured in the book are still in the author's possession.
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