“There was no book when she said, ‘We’re going to make a movie out of this ‘Hidden Figures’ story,’” Shetterly says. Shetterly gives credit for the film’s quick turnaround to Donna Gigliotti, who has produced a number of hits, including “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Shakespeare in Love.” The book release was followed quickly by the December debut of “Hidden Figures” the blockbuster movie.
“For me, it expressed in this very succinct way everything that I wanted to say about this story and everything that intrigued me about this kind of history that captured my imagination.” “It was kind of like this two-word, haiku poem for the book,” she says. She even explained the title’s origins to the room of eager listeners: “Hidden Figures” wasn’t Shetterly’s first idea, but when it popped into her head, it was clear how perfectly it fit. The first-time author shared her journey of uncovering these women’s stories – from the first interview to the movie premiere and beyond. As the designated 2017 Rutgers Reads book, it was read by the university’s entire incoming freshman class and in September, Shetterly visited the Camden campus for a special lecture. The story of these women caught on quickly, and the book was assigned as required reading in many South Jersey schools. “Hidden Figures”, Shetterly’s novel chronicling the lives of African-American women working at NASA during the 20th century, was released in September 2016. Just looking for absolutely any scrap or snippet of these women, of their lives, of their work, of the people that worked with them on what they were collaborating on, of the community at the time,” she says. Six years later, she emerged from piles of notes and archives with “Hidden Figures” – the book and the movie. Shetterly began uncovering these women’s stories in December 2010. Once she realized this wasn’t the norm across the country – specifically, when her husband pointed out that fact – she felt compelled to do something. With her father working as a scientist in Virginia’s NASA Langley Laboratory, Shetterly had a front-row seat to the lives of mathematicians and researchers who were both African-American and female. “I didn’t think that couldn’t be just one person with all of those adjectives.” “When I heard the words black, female and scientist, I didn’t think that had to apply to three different people,” Shetterly says. Margot Lee Shetterly never knew she was in on a secret.
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