The inspiring true story of an indomitable librarian's journey from
Nazi Germany to Seattle to Vietnam--all for the love of books.
Growing up under Fascist censorship in Nazi Germany, Ruth Rappaport
absorbed a forbidden community of ideas in banned books. After fleeing
her home in Leipzig at fifteen and losing both parents to the Holocaust,
Ruth drifted between vocations, relationships, and countries, searching
for belonging and purpose. When she found her calling in librarianship,
Ruth became not only a witness to history but an agent for change as
well.
Culled from decades of diaries, letters, and photographs, this epic true
story reveals a driven woman who survived persecution, political unrest,
and personal trauma through a love of books. It traces her activism from
the Zionist movement to the Red Scare to bibliotherapy in Vietnam and
finally to the Library of Congress, where Ruth made an indelible mark
and found a home. Connecting it all, one constant thread: Ruth's passion
for the printed word, and the haven it provides--a haven that, as this
singularly compelling biography proves, Ruth would spend her life making
accessible to others. This wasn't just a career for Ruth Rappaport. It
was her purpose.
