Ever since she was young, Julie Klam has been fascinated by the Morris sisters, cousins of her grandmother. According to family lore, early in the twentieth century the sisters’ parents decided to move the family from Eastern Europe to Los Angeles so their father could become a movie director. On the way, their pregnant mother went into labor in St. Louis, where the baby was born and where their mother died. The father left the children in an orphanage and promised to send for them when he settled in California—a promise he never kept. One of the Morris sisters later became a successful Wall Street trader and advised Franklin Roosevelt. The sisters lived together in New York City, none of them married or had children, and one even had an affair with J. P. Morgan.

The stories of these independent women intrigued Klam, but as she delved into them to learn more, she realized that the tales were almost completely untrue. Part memoir and part confessional, The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters is the fascinating and funny true story of one writer’s journey into her family’s past, the truths she brings to light, and what she learns about herself along the way.

Klam will be in conversation with her brother, Matthew, named one of the 20 best young fiction writers in America by the New Yorker. He is an O. Henry Award winner. His nonfiction has been featured in such places as Harper’s and the New York Times Magazine. His most recent book is Who is Rich?: A Novel.

Hosted by Politics and Prose in Washington, DC. Click here to register for this virtual event!