An outstanding golden age mystery classic and one of the most important books about the Women of World War II!

Heart on Her Sleeve is the story of a patriotic American college girl who steps up to run her father’s war plant when he is hospitalized by saboteurs. Not long after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and US entry into the Second World War, the government realized the draft would seriously deplete the country’s entire workforce, including entry-level labor, skilled trades, office staff, and management. The only possible replacement was to be found in the ranks of the nation’s women. But for women to join the workforce, major changes would have to occur.

Traditionally characterized as an emotional and care-giving labor force—homemakers, mothers, nurses, teachers and the like—women would have to adopt a whole new view of themselves and their capacities (as would men), and quickly. In a world without TV or internet, a radical re-envisioning of women’s capabilities would have to be promulgated via radio, newspapers, and magazines.

So the US government called together leading writers and journalists, asking them to help by printing and broadcasting stories, novels, and factual reports supporting the heretical notion that women could make great factory and office workers—and even run those factories and offices—without losing their “natural” urge to be homemakers, mothers, and wives.

This campaign began in the May 29, 1943 Saturday Evening Post with a two-part kick-off: Exploding from the cover, Norman Rockwell’s overpowering, goddess-proportioned painting of Rosie the Riveter in overalls, with a touch of lipstick and blush, a rivet gun balanced across her thighs, a look of unflappable nonchalance, the Stars and Stripes unfurled behind her, and a copy of Mein Kampf crushed beneath her feet. And, to her left, boxed text beckoned readers to discover the initial installment of a new Kelland serial—Heart on Her Sleeve.