Dorothy Lazard is a writer, public historian, and former librarian. She is celebrated for her library career and her 2023 memoir, What You Don’t Know Will Make a Whole New World, which tells the story of her youth in the Bay Area of the 1960s and ’70s, connecting her early intellectual pursuits to the career that made her a community pillar.
Her latest book, Behind the Desk at the Main, delves into her twenty-year career at the Oakland Main Library. It will be published by Heyday in August 2026.
Reviews for “What You Don’t Know…”
“Lazard’s story may exemplify a cultural awakening experienced by many of her Black peers, but it is also intensely individual, shaped as much by her own family circumstances as by the world around her…Compelling and memorable.”
“Recent years have seen a new wave of memoirs by Black women, including some about childhood and coming of age. But this memoir gives particular—and perhaps in many similar books, less emphasized—weight to the author’s formation as a reader, writer, and intellectual. Poignant story of youth that is appealing to adult and young adult readers alike.”
“In clear, calm, resolute prose, Lazard recounts the onslaught of urgent issues overpowering her Bay Area childhood, from “America’s foreign policy and military might” as the Vietnam War raged, to wealth, class and racism…”
“I've rarely encountered such an endearing authorial voice. Wry and observant, Dorothy Lazard's writing evokes such distinctive neighbors and family members in a time, place, and culture truly worth cherishing.”
— Susan D. Anderson, History Curator, California African American Museum
“Lazard refers to her narrative as ‘my recovery mission to retrieve a time in my life that marked me more deeply than any other,’ and she succeeds handily, thanks to rigorous scene-building and memorable characterizations of her family. This is a powerful account.”