The author of the #1 New York Times bestselling nonfiction book Hidden Figures, Margot Lee Shetterly, is writing two more books about "extraordinary ordinary" African-Americans whose contributions to American history have been overlooked. Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House, announced the news on Monday morning.
The first book will be set in midcentury Baltimore, and will chronicle the history of two African-American households: first, the Murphy family, the reigning monarchs of Baltimore black society and the owners of the city's Afro-American newspapers; second, Willie and Victorine Adams, who were philanthropists, investors, and patrons of entrepreneurship in the city's black community. Through these two stories, Shetterly hopes to inspire new understanding of the city and provide further insight into the shortcomings of the American dream. The book doesn't have a title or release date at this time. No details were made available about the second book.
In a press release, Brian Tart, President and Publisher of Viking says: "Margot Lee Shetterly is a gifted historian and storyteller with a remarkable ability to find important, untold stories in America's history."
In addition to being a nonfiction writer, Margot Lee Shetterly is an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation fellow, a Virginia Foundation for the Humanities grantee, and the founder of the Human Computer Project, a digital archive of all the women who worked as math and science professionals at NASA from the 1930s to 1980s.
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, $9, Amazon
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, which chronicled the lives of the black female "Human Computers" who worked at NASA during the Space Race, was one of the top books — and movies — of 2016. The book was a USA Today and #1 NYT bestseller, and the movie adaptation, which starred Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monae, was nominated for three Academy Awards and named one of the top 10 movies of 2016 by the National Board of Review.
