SHANNON McKENNA SCHMIDT
Writer & Traveler
YOU CAN'T CATCH US
Lady Bird Johnson's Trailblazing 1964 Campaign Train
and the Women Who Rode with Her
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March 3, 2026
“An exhilarating and important read. All aboard
the Lady Bird Special! 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​​
In October 1964, Lady Bird Johnson defied convention and became the first presidential spouse to take a leading role on the campaign trail. Her mission: to aid her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson, in his reelection bid and to help ease the animosity that had arisen throughout the South due to the signing of the Civil Rights Act three months earlier.
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, making headlines and shaking up the status quo along the way.
"This action-packed and suspenseful wartime drama
vividly captures the selfless grit and tenderness of Eleanor Roosevelt’s battle-zone leadership."
—David Michaelis, author of ELEANOR
​​​​​In August 1943, Eleanor Roosevelt journeyed to the Pacific Theater, where the United States was at war with Japan. A goodwill tour, diplomatic mission, and fact-finding foray, the 25,000-mile trip was further, longer, and more dangerous than any previously undertaken by the well-traveled First Lady.
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The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt's Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back follows her on this daring trek, taken under arduous conditions in a theater of war that sprawled over vast ocean distances. The trip, which demonstrated how dramatically she had transformed the role of First Lady, still stands —in the words of a reporter at the time—as "the most remarkable journey any president’s wife has ever made."
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NOVEL DESTINATIONS:
A Travel Guide to Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen's Bath to Ernest Hemingway's Key West, 2nd ed.
Novel Destinations invites readers to follow in the footsteps of much-loved authors, discover the scenes that sparked their imaginations, glimpse the lives they led, and share a bit of the experiences they transformed so eloquently into print. If you're looking to indulge in literary adventure, you'll find all the inspiration and information you need here.
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"A fun read whether for armchair travelers or actual literary pilgrims."
—Chicago Tribune
WRITERS BETWEEN THE COVERS:
The Scandalous Romantic Lives of Legendary Literary Casanovas, Coquettes, and Cads
Classic writers were far from solitary creative geniuses holed up with only their ink-stained manuscripts to keep them company. From Robert Louis Stevenson's globetrotting romance to Agatha Christie's reinvention after a devastating divorce, Writers Between the Covers reveals literary history's most captivating loves, lusts, and longings.
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"A compulsively readable, juicy assemblage of scandalous true-life tales that sheds light on some of the great works of literature, and the behavior that inspired it." —Bronwyn Miller, Bookreporter.com