Westover: Giving Girls a Place of Their Own

Westover, a girls' high school in Middlebury, Connecticut, has evolved from a finishing school for the Protestant elite, including F. Scott Fitzgerald's first love, to a meritocracy for pupils of many religions and races from all around the world. The fascinating account of the ups and downs of this female community is the subject of Laurie Lisle's well-researched and beautifully illustrated book. It tells an important story about female education during decades of dramatic social change in America.

This school for girls was founded in 1909 by emancipated New Women. The author describes the innovations of the idealistic minister's daughter who founded the school, her intellectual successor who turned it into a college preparatory school in the 1930s, the quiet headmaster who struggled to keep it open during the turbulent 1970s, and the prize-winning mathematics teacher, wife, and mother who then lead the school into a new era.