About
Shannon McKenna Schmidt is the author of YOU CAN'T CATCH US: Lady Bird Johnson's Trailblazing 1964 Campaign Train and the Women Who Rode with Her and THE FIRST LADY OF WORLD WAR II: Eleanor Roosevelt's Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back. She is also the co-author of NOVEL DESTINATIONS: A Travel Guide to Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen’s Bath to Ernest Hemingway’s Key West and WRITERS BETWEEN THE COVERS: The Scandalous Romantic Lives of Legendary Literary Casanovas, Coquettes, and Cads .
In addition, Shannon has written for National Geographic Traveler, Shelf Awareness, History.com, and other websites and publications. She has been a guest on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Studio 2/WHYY, and the Travel Show with Pauline Frommer, and has spoken at the FDR Presidential Library and Museum, the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, the National World War II Museum, and many other venues, including bookstores, libraries, museums, and historic sites.
An avid traveler, Shannon spent a seven-year stretch traveling full-time—first in the United States by RV and then backpacking around the globe. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Featured Work
YOU CAN'T CATCH US: Lady Bird Johnson's Trailblazing 1964 Campaign Train and the Women Who Rode with Her
At a time when political candidates’ wives were expected to be seen and not heard, Lady Bird Johnson defied convention and took a leading role on the campaign trail. Her mission: to aid LBJ’s 1964 presidential reelection bid and to help ease animosity in the South due to the signing of the Civil Rights Act three months earlier. YOU CAN'T CATCH US: Lady Bird Johnson’s Trailblazing 1964 Campaign Train and the Women Who Rode with Her is the first book to chronicle in full this unprecedented undertaking.
Aided by a team of pioneering women, Lady Bird whistle-stopped from Washington, DC, to New Orleans aboard a custom, nineteen-car train dubbed the Lady Bird Special, facing danger, making headlines, and shaking up the status quo. YOU CAN'T CATCH US unfolds this groundbreaking journey and encompasses along the way the surrounding social progress in women’s rights and civil rights that served as both backdrop and fuel for the Lady Bird Special.
“An exhilarating and important read.... This is one ride you won’t want to miss.” —Denise Kiernan, New York Times bestselling author of THE GIRLS OF ATOMIC CITY and OBSTINATE DAUGHTERS
