Presented by the Nealis program in Asian Studies

Eve of a Hundred Midnights tells the true story of two newlywed war correspondents’ island-hopping run for their lives across the Pacific after the fall of Manila. Lascher charts the career of Melville Jacoby, who covered China and the Philippines during World War II, and recounts how Mel’s love for China and journalism brought him into the orbit of MGM scriptwriter-turned-journalist Annalee Whitmore, who he married in Manila barely a week before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Lascher, a relative of Jacoby's, will discuss the book and how journalists like Mel and Annalee brought the oft-neglected conflict in China and the Philippines to U.S. audiences. Lascher will also discuss how he used archival sources from private and institutional collections to bring the Jacobys’ story to life.