The Life of the Extraordinary
Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987) was a playwright, journalist, politician and diplomat. She was managing editor of Vanity Fair, represented Connecticut in the House of Representatives for two terms, and under President Eisenhower, was appointed ambassador to Italy - the first American female to serve in a major ambassadorial position abroad. She was married to Henry Luce, publisher and founder of Time Inc.
The Price of Fame: BEAUTY was an asset Clare Boothe Luce used to her political (and financial) advantage. But so, too, were the other characteristics summed up by Sylvia Jukes Morris in this second and final part of her exhaustive biography of one of the most remarkable women of 20th-century America: “charm, humour, coquetry, intellect, ambition”. These brought her marriages to two wealthy men, two outspoken terms in the House of Representatives, an ambassadorship in Rome and an array of honours that culminated in the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Not bad for a woman born illegitimate in an unpromising part of NY.
A woman of substance!
What Clare Boothe Luce wanted, Clare Boothe Luce got: a man, a seat in Congress, an ambassadorship. A literary star in her own right, she had become half of America’s premier power couple when the Time-empire founder Henry Luce left his wife to marry her in 1935. But, reveals Sylvia Jukes Morris, in an excerpt from volume two of her biography, the woman who jousted with presidents and experimented with LSD wasn’t prepared, in 1959, to find herself the one betrayed. Clare, in Love, War and Presidential Favors. Rage for Fame: The Ascent of Clare Booth Luce
“Her technique was simple: aim for the top,” an envious colleague wrote of Clare Boothe Luce. No American woman of the twentieth century aimed so accurately, or rose so far, as this legendary playwright, politician, and social seductress. Born in New York’s Spanish Harlem, with nothing to recommend her but beauty, ferocious intelligence, and dry wit, she transformed herself into the youthful managing editor of Vanity Fair. She married two millionaires and wrote three Broadway hits, including the biting satire, The Women. Her second husband, Henry Luce—the publisher of Time, Fortune, and later at her suggestion Life—was only one of the dozens of men she entranced. Adding politics and power to journalism and drama, Clare used sex, street smarts, acid humor, and money to plot a career more improbable than anything in her own fiction. Not content with mere wealth and the acclaim of transatlantic café society, Clare Boothe Luce confessed to a “rage for fame.” This extraordinary book—the result of more than fifteen years of research by Sylvia Jukes Morris, her chosen biographer—tells how she achieved it.
“A model biography . . . the sort that only real writers can write.”
—Gore Vidal, The New Yorker
Meet the Author
Sylvia Jukes Morris was born and educated in England, where she taught English literature before immigrating to America. She is the author of Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady, and is married to the writer Edmund Morris.
Liz Smith chats with author Sylvia Jukes Morris
"IT IS better to be a rare jade and broken, than to be common tile, and whole," goes the Chinese proverb.
THAT PROVERB appears, by no coincidence, and with significant meaning, in an astonishing book, "Price of Fame: The Honorable Clare Boothe Luce" by Sylvia Jukes Morris.
This is Ms. Jukes' second volume on Mrs. Luce. The first, "Rage for Fame: The Ascent of Clare Boothe Luce," I somehow, incredibly missed. But I didn't feel out of my depth plunging into this one. I know a good deal about Mrs. Luce -- at least, the public woman -- and "Price of Fame" supplies enough background on Clare's rather grimy, unhappy childhood, and her years as the beautiful, witty playwright of "The Women" and Society's darling, to assuage any fears to missing "the good stuff."
Believe me, the "good stuff" is here, in this second volume. In dazzling, devastating spades. Read Full Article.
“I hope I shall have ambition until the day I die,” Clare Boothe Luce told her biographer Sylvia Jukes Morris; the only writer to have had complete access to Mrs. Luce’s prodigious collection of public and private papers. In addition, she had unique access to her subject, whose death at eighty-four ended a life that for variety of accomplishment qualifies Clare Boothe Luce for the title of “Woman of the Century.”
Yes, CBL had an dynamic career. Love or loathe her, she could not — cannot — be ignored. To paraphrase Arthur Miller, "Attention had to be paid."
CBL: The Woman; had few real friends, as Lawrenson wrote, because “she seemed to trust no one, love no one.” Yet, Lawrenson said, Luce “could enter a room where there were other women, more beautiful, better dressed with better figures, and they faded into the background, foils for her radiance.”
Clare Boothe Luce with the troops 1945.
You can learn about the CBL Policy Institute; home of conservative women leaders and the leading resource for advice, training, and guidance of young conservative women.
CBLPI represents the power and potential of conservative women. Strong women leaders like Clare Boothe Luce, Margaret Thatcher, and Sarah Palin have inspired millions and impacted the world for the better.
TheReview Accommodates Many Voices: brings readers smart and useful appraisals of fiction and nonfiction, as well as essays, interviews, and other features on a wide variety of topics. The nation’s largest retail bookseller and the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products will present StoryTime Lineup & Events (STLE) starting September 2014.
All get empowered, it's StoryTime for children and families, designed to celebrate the joy of reading, creativity and fun. The StoryTime are free and open to the public. To discover more, including dates and times of the events near you, visit the B&N Store Locator. Enjoy and share the knowledge!
Thanks for Reading! ;-)
“I now have more books than I can read in a lifetime.”
Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987) was a playwright, journalist, politician and diplomat. She was managing editor of Vanity Fair, represented Connecticut in the House of Representatives for two terms, and under President Eisenhower, was appointed ambassador to Italy - the first American female to serve in a major ambassadorial position abroad. She was married to Henry Luce, publisher and founder of Time Inc.
The Price of Fame: BEAUTY was an asset Clare Boothe Luce used to her political (and financial) advantage. But so, too, were the other characteristics summed up by Sylvia Jukes Morris in this second and final part of her exhaustive biography of one of the most remarkable women of 20th-century America: “charm, humour, coquetry, intellect, ambition”. These brought her marriages to two wealthy men, two outspoken terms in the House of Representatives, an ambassadorship in Rome and an array of honours that culminated in the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Not bad for a woman born illegitimate in an unpromising part of NY.
A woman of substance!
What Clare Boothe Luce wanted, Clare Boothe Luce got: a man, a seat in Congress, an ambassadorship. A literary star in her own right, she had become half of America’s premier power couple when the Time-empire founder Henry Luce left his wife to marry her in 1935. But, reveals Sylvia Jukes Morris, in an excerpt from volume two of her biography, the woman who jousted with presidents and experimented with LSD wasn’t prepared, in 1959, to find herself the one betrayed. Clare, in Love, War and Presidential Favors. Rage for Fame: The Ascent of Clare Booth Luce
“Her technique was simple: aim for the top,” an envious colleague wrote of Clare Boothe Luce. No American woman of the twentieth century aimed so accurately, or rose so far, as this legendary playwright, politician, and social seductress. Born in New York’s Spanish Harlem, with nothing to recommend her but beauty, ferocious intelligence, and dry wit, she transformed herself into the youthful managing editor of Vanity Fair. She married two millionaires and wrote three Broadway hits, including the biting satire, The Women. Her second husband, Henry Luce—the publisher of Time, Fortune, and later at her suggestion Life—was only one of the dozens of men she entranced. Adding politics and power to journalism and drama, Clare used sex, street smarts, acid humor, and money to plot a career more improbable than anything in her own fiction. Not content with mere wealth and the acclaim of transatlantic café society, Clare Boothe Luce confessed to a “rage for fame.” This extraordinary book—the result of more than fifteen years of research by Sylvia Jukes Morris, her chosen biographer—tells how she achieved it.
“A model biography . . . the sort that only real writers can write.”
—Gore Vidal, The New Yorker
Meet the Author
Sylvia Jukes Morris was born and educated in England, where she taught English literature before immigrating to America. She is the author of Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady, and is married to the writer Edmund Morris.
"IT IS better to be a rare jade and broken, than to be common tile, and whole," goes the Chinese proverb.
THAT PROVERB appears, by no coincidence, and with significant meaning, in an astonishing book, "Price of Fame: The Honorable Clare Boothe Luce" by Sylvia Jukes Morris.
This is Ms. Jukes' second volume on Mrs. Luce. The first, "Rage for Fame: The Ascent of Clare Boothe Luce," I somehow, incredibly missed. But I didn't feel out of my depth plunging into this one. I know a good deal about Mrs. Luce -- at least, the public woman -- and "Price of Fame" supplies enough background on Clare's rather grimy, unhappy childhood, and her years as the beautiful, witty playwright of "The Women" and Society's darling, to assuage any fears to missing "the good stuff."
Believe me, the "good stuff" is here, in this second volume. In dazzling, devastating spades. Read Full Article.
“I hope I shall have ambition until the day I die,” Clare Boothe Luce told her biographer Sylvia Jukes Morris; the only writer to have had complete access to Mrs. Luce’s prodigious collection of public and private papers. In addition, she had unique access to her subject, whose death at eighty-four ended a life that for variety of accomplishment qualifies Clare Boothe Luce for the title of “Woman of the Century.”
Yes, CBL had an dynamic career. Love or loathe her, she could not — cannot — be ignored. To paraphrase Arthur Miller, "Attention had to be paid."
CBL: The Woman; had few real friends, as Lawrenson wrote, because “she seemed to trust no one, love no one.” Yet, Lawrenson said, Luce “could enter a room where there were other women, more beautiful, better dressed with better figures, and they faded into the background, foils for her radiance.”
You can learn about the CBL Policy Institute; home of conservative women leaders and the leading resource for advice, training, and guidance of young conservative women.
CBLPI represents the power and potential of conservative women. Strong women leaders like Clare Boothe Luce, Margaret Thatcher, and Sarah Palin have inspired millions and impacted the world for the better.
TheReview Accommodates Many Voices: brings readers smart and useful appraisals of fiction and nonfiction, as well as essays, interviews, and other features on a wide variety of topics. The nation’s largest retail bookseller and the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products will present StoryTime Lineup & Events (STLE) starting September 2014.
All get empowered, it's StoryTime for children and families, designed to celebrate the joy of reading, creativity and fun. The StoryTime are free and open to the public. To discover more, including dates and times of the events near you, visit the B&N Store Locator. Enjoy and share the knowledge!
Thanks for Reading! ;-)
“I now have more books than I can read in a lifetime.”
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