Gibson's Bookstore will welcome New Hampshire author Lisa Rogak at a launch event for her newest book  “Propaganda Girls: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS” on Tuesday, March 4 at 6:30 p.m. Rogak, who lives in Canaan, will present the incredible untold story of four women who helped win World War Two by generating a wave of black propaganda: Betty MacDonald, a 28-year-old reporter from Hawaii, Zuzka Lauwers who grew up in a tiny Czechoslovakian village, Jane Smith-Hutton the wife of a naval attaché living in Tokyo, and Marlene Dietrich, the German-American actress and singer. 

As members of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), these women were tasked with creating a secret brand of propaganda produced with the sole aim of breaking the morale of Axis soldiers. Working in the European theater, across enemy lines in occupied China, and in Washington, D.C., Betty, Zuzka, Jane, and Marlene forged letters and “official” military orders, wrote and produced entire newspapers, scripted radio broadcasts and songs, and even developed rumors for undercover spies and double agents to spread to the enemy. Outside of a small group of spies, no one knew they existed— until now.

In “Propaganda Girls,” bestselling author Rogak brings to life the incredible true story of four unsung heroes, whose spellbinding achievements would change the course of history. Rogak has also written “And Nothing But the Truthiness: The Rise (and Further Rise) of Stephen Colbert,” and “Angry Optimist: The Life and Times of Jon Stewart.” She is the editor of the New York Times bestseller “Barack Obama in His Own Words.”

Ahead of her Concord visit, Rogak shared more about “Propaganda Girls” and her writing journey.

Q: Where did you first get the idea for Propaganda Girls? I usually find the idea for a new project while I’m researching something else. I am a voracious reader of whatever I’m researching at the time, and in 2016 I’d just handed in the manuscript and photos for a book called “Dogs Who Serve,” a follow-up to “Dogs of War.” So I had been devouring books on military history when I first heard about the Morale Operations (MO) division of the OSS, probably via Betty MacDonald, one of the women in Propaganda Girls, who had written a couple of books on her experiences: “Undercover Girl,” and “Sisterhood of Spies,” as Elizabeth McIntosh.

Q: What did your research process look like for this book? Digging, digging, and more digging. I probably read every book about the OSS ever published. And then I started looking for what was unpublished: interviews, stories, documents, newspaper and magazine articles, etc. Because MO was carried out all over the world, I didn’t want to focus on just one woman. I also wanted to balance them out geographically: two in Europe, one in the Pacific Theatre, and most importantly, one based in the States at OSS headquarters, since the domestic perspective of OSS was rarely touched on in the books I’d read.

While I really wanted to dig through declassified OSS files at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, I knew it wasn’t a good use of my time. So on two separate occasions I hired two researchers who spent their days combing through OSS files and told them specifically what I was looking for. Happily, while there was some overlap, they dug up separate information about the women and the Morale Operations along with their personnel files, which were a gold mine. Without the personnel records, I wouldn’t have been able to write about the degree of blatant sexism that the women had dealt with during the war.

Q: What do you hope readers will take away from reading about these impactful women?That they will be inspired to fight back and speak up in whatever arena they choose. And if somebody tells you NO, then go ahead and do it anyway.

Where did you find creative inspiration while working on this project? I wanted to serve these women and their stories well, so I was constantly inspired by what they were able to accomplish under very limited and dangerous circumstances.

Q: What was a challenge you encountered during the writing process? Knowing when to stop. Research is my favorite thing about writing, and I always feel that if I go down just one more rabbit hole, the planets will align, angels will sing, and the book will be perfect….ha!

Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d give aspiring writers? Read read read read read read read. Read some more. Then write.

Lisa Rogak will be at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord on Tuesday, March 4 at 6:30 p.m. No registration is required for this event. For more information, visit gibsonsbookstore.com/event/propaganda-girls.