Songs She Wrote explores the often-neglected legacies of female songwriters behind classic hits that make up the Great American Songbook. This book celebrates the contributions of these remarkable women, diving into their fascinating lives and revealing intriguing stories behind the songs, and places them within their historical times.

Women built the popular song industry of Tin Pan Alley, yet many of their stories have seldom been told. They blazed the trail for women in music today and set an inspiring example for generations to come.
Songs She Wrote celebrates women’s contributions to popular music by looking at dozens of well-known songwriters, lyricists, and composers in the first half of the twentieth century like Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee, and Dorothy Parker and unearths more unknown women who made major contributions. Learn about Maria Grever (“What a Difference a Day Made”) who was the first female Mexican to achieve international acclaim and the fascinating story of African American lyricist Lucy Fletcher (“Sugar Blues”), among many others. Women in the popular music business went through struggles different from their male colleagues, making their triumphs all the more impressive. Their combined sagas convey an epic about women in the world of American popular music.

"A treasure for those interested in music and women’s history. The easy-to-read narrative will appeal to a wide variety of readers." - Library Journal

"Unique in its breadth, acting as both a studied appreciation of the songs the women created and the incredible impact they made in a male-dominated field … Songs She Wrote is an overdue celebration of the women behind the music." - Booklist

"Extraordinary, exceptional, and thoroughly 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation, Songs She Wrote: Forty Hits by Pioneering Women of Popular Music by Michael G. Garber is an original work of meticulous scholarship and especially recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library 20th Century Music Appreciation & History collections in general, and supplemental Women's Music History curriculum studies lists." - Midwest Book Review