Penelope Rowlands

A Dash of Daring -- published by Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster -- was widely reviewed.[2][3][4][5] BBC Radio 4 said Rowlands “revive(d Snow's) legacy," which encompassed all of the arts, beyond just fashion.[6] The Irish Times called the book "As vibrant and engaging as a Dorothy Parker piece, and full of Snow's spirit."[7] Fashion editors in particular, weighed in. Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune wrote that "Penelope Rowlands tells a dense, fast-paced story and deftly puts it in the context of magazine history.... Carmel Snow comes vividly to life [8]. Vogue's Anna Wintour called it a "wonderful new biography" in the editor's column of the September, 2005 issue.

The biography was excerpted in U.S.Vogue in September 2005. The British version of Harper's Bazaar also published an excerpt. That text ran in the January 2006 issue -- the first one since the publication was transformed from the former Harpers & Queen.

A Dash of Daring was published in Britain by Simon & Schuster UK in 2006. A U.S. paperback edition came out two years later.

Rowlands is also the author of short biographies of the European industrial designers Jean Prouvé and Eileen Gray, both published in 2002.

In 2011, Rowlands conceived, edited, and contributed an essay to the anthology, Paris Was Ours, which looked at the transformative effect the French capital has had on a disparate, international group of contemporary writers, including Edmund White, Diane Johnson, the Cuban novelist Zoé Valdés, Judith Thurman, the Iraqi-born Assyrian editor Samuel Shimon and a homeless French blogger.[9][10]

Paris Was Ours was chosen as the January 2011, Book of the Month by National Geographic Traveler magazine.[11] Rochelle Olson of the Star Tribune noted the book's realistic approach. "In dismantling the dream of Paris, they reveal an infinitely more complex city and people," she wrote.[12] The Chicago Tribune called it a "sparkling collection."[13] Charles Solomon, writing for the Los Angeles Times, warned that some of "the essays tell the reader more about the authors' peccadilloes and prejudices than they do about Paris or Parisians."[14]

In 2014 Rowlands edited and contributed to the tribute anthology The Beatles Are Here! 50 Years After the Band Arrived in America, Writers, Musicians, and Other Fans Remember, was published to coincide with the anniversary of the group's arrival in the US.[15] James Wolcott described it in Vanity Fair magazine as "A goody bag of tributes and recollections,"[16] while the music critic of The Boston Globe, James Reed, called it "One of the more fascinating new books on the Fab Four’s impact." [17] Publishers Weekly called it, "compulsively readable."[18] Kirkus Reviews referred to it as "A bonbon for fans."[19]