Jennet Conant (born July 15, 1959) is an American non-fiction author and journalist. She has written five books about World War II, three of which have appeared on theNew York Times Best Seller list:Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science that Changed the Course of WWII,109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos,The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington, andA Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS.
Born in Seoul,South Korea, and raised in Asia and America, she received a BA degree (cum laude) in Political Theory fromBryn Mawr College in 1982, and double-majored in philosophy atHaverford College. She completed a master's degree in journalism from New York City'sColumbia University in 1983. She was awarded a John J. McCloy Fellowship to study politics inGermany.
Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science that Changed the Course of World War II (2002), based in part on her family's role in World War II, explores the hitherto unknown story of lawyer, scientist, and New York financierAlfred Lee Loomis and his role in the development ofradar technology during World War II.
Her second book,109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos (2005), is an account of the history, science, politics and struggles surrounding the building of theatomic bomb. It includes insights from the author's grandfather,James B. Conant, who was an administrator for theManhattan Project.[1][2] In 2006, it won the Spirit of the West Award for literary achievement in nonfiction.[3]
The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington (2008) is about the structure, history, development, implications, and influence of British espionage in the United States before, during and immediately after World War II. Her history of the organization known asBritish Security Coordination (BSC) chronicles the exploits of a charm brigade that included such recruits asRoald Dahl,Ian Fleming andDavid Ogilvy as well as the head of BSC,William Stephenson.[4] It was selected as Amazon Best Book of the Month September 2008.[5]
A Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS (2011) is about the experiences ofJulia Child andPaul Child as members of theOffice of Strategic Services (OSS) in the Far East during World War II and the later years when they were caught up in the McCarthy Red spy hunt in the 1950s.[6]
Man of the Hour: James B. Conant, Warrior Scientist (2017) is a biography of Conant's grandfatherJames B. Conant, a prominent chemist, president ofHarvard University, and ambassador to Germany.[7][8] A review in the journalNature (journal) called it a "welcome" take on James Conant's life, emerging "at a salutary moment," and said that Jennet Conant "is a fine writer."[9]
The Great Secret: The Classified World War II Disaster That Launched the War on Cancer (2020) discusses a 1943air attack on Bari, Italy; in the aftermath, sailors sat for hours in clothing soaked in oil containingmustard gas. In the subsequent investigation of the bombing, Lt. Col. Stewart Alexander noticed the effect of the mustard gas onwhite blood cells, sparking later research intochemotherapy.[10] A review in theNew York Times was lukewarm, saying "As intriguing as all this might sound, the telling is hobbled in several fundamental ways."[11]
Conant has been widely praised by critics.Kirkus Reviews hailedTuxedo Park as "Remarkable and remarkably told, as if F. Scott Fitzgerald had penned Batman."[17] Jonathan Yardley in aWashington Post review ofThe Irregulars said that "As was true of her excellent first book,Tuxedo Park, inThe Irregulars she removes the dust of history from a forgotten but important figure to be reckoned with before and during the war."[18]
