The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland
By Michelle Young
Harper One, 2025

In August 1944, with the battle to liberate Paris thundering around her beloved Jeu de Paume museum, Curator Rose Valland was facing imminent death. The co-opted museum was the Germans’ final line of defense and Valland was inside, deliberately putting herself in harm’s way to protect the museum, her staff, and humanity’s cultural inheritance. Based on previously undiscovered documents, The Art Spy chronicles the brave actions of an undersung hero whose courage and tenacity in a time of violence and uncertainty is an inspiration for all.

This event is presented in partnership with Delaware Art Museum. 

About the Author
Michelle Young is an award-winning journalist, author, and professor who attended Juilliard, Harvard, and Columbia, where she now teaches architecture. She and her husband divide their time between Paris and NYC, where they work together on the publication she founded, Untapped New York.

Purchase the book
Please help support local independent bookstores by purchasing this book at Browseabout Books, official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Online sources and digital versions are tempting; however, supporting local brick and mortar shops helps to preserve our vibrant main streets. Drop by Browseabout, order books online, or call the store at 302-226-2665. You also may purchase a copy at biblion in Lewes.

About the Festival
The History Book Festival is the first and only book festival in the United States devoted exclusively to history. With the help of our presenting funding partners — Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices | PenFed Realty — as well as our program and community partners, volunteers, and donors, the 2025 History Book Festival will be full of great discussions with authors of newly published narrative nonfiction and historical fiction. 

Thanks to all of our donors, especially our education and outreach funding partners: Ronald Collins & Susan Cohen, Carolyn & Aaron Nayer, Jen Mason & Clare Hancock, and Browseabout Books. HBF authors visit classrooms in Delaware, and HBF provides their books to schools, libraries, and community organizations.

Our Keynote event is presented by Griswold Home Care for Sussex and Kent Counties and Sally Mott Freeman & John K. Freeman; our Closing event is presented by the Delaware Community Foundation. Saturday’s Spirited Discussion, our gathering for attendees and presenters to celebrate and discuss their day, is presented by Dogfish Head Beer & Benevolence.

Special thanks to our Founding Program Partners for their continuing support: the Lewes Public Library, for event promotion and production, and Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Thanks also to the  Lewes Chamber of Commerce for event promotion, and the Cape Gazette and Delmarva Public Media, our media partners.