First Ladies: An Intimate Group Portrait of White House Wives
by Margaret Truman
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This well-informed, intimate look at 29 women whose lives were intertwined with those who lead and have led this country presents forthright interviews with Lady Bird Johnson, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Reagan, and others, while warmly recalling Pat Nixon and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Ms. Truman's legendary frankness is present but so, too, is a generosity of spirit. Photos throughout.--Publisher description.Tags
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Member Reviews
I find Margaret Truman fascinating, and I'm so glad she wrote this book. Looking back at the first ladies in American history, Truman brings a first hand knowledge of what it's like to live in the White House, and a personal knowledge of 100 years of first ladies, having met many of them between Grover Cleveland's widow and Hillary Clinton. This book is her attempt to sort them out, to try and find the things that united and divided them, and even when I didn't agree with her conclusions, I found her insights truly interesting.
Don't look for objectivity here! But if you enjoy hearing stories about American Presidents and their lives, especially from a decidedly opinionated source, you will love this book. Get Margaret Truman's take on recent White House wives including Pat Nixon and Jackie Kennedy as well as less well known but equally fascinating figures such as Julia Tyler and Lou Hoover. Recommended.
Been there, done that. Margaret Truman brings credentials to the task and adds another set of somewhat more than thumbnail sketches to the first lady anthologies.
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Author Information
48+ Works 12,810 Members
Mary Margaret Truman, daughter of President Harry S. Truman, was born on February 17, 1924 in Independence, Missouri. She graduated from George Washington University in 1946. She was also known as Margaret Truman or Margaret Daniel. She was an American singer who later became the successful author of a series of murder mysteries and a number of show more works on U.S. First Ladies and First Families, including a biography of her father, President Harry S. Truman. The only child of Harry Truman and First Lady Bess Truman; she was called "Margaret" for most of her life. Truman made her concert debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1947 and her first television appearance on Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town. She substituted for Edward R. Murrow on Person to Person, and later had her own radio shows (Weekday in the 1950s and Authors in the News in the 1960s). She was active with organizations such as the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation and the Truman Centennial Committee. She published her first book, Souvenir: Margaret Truman's Own Story in 1956. She also wrote a series of mysteries set at historic locations in Washington, D. C. She died on January 29, 2008 following a brief illness. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- First Ladies: An Intimate Group Portrait of White House Wives
- Original title
- First Ladies: An Intimate Group Portrait of White House Wives
- People/Characters
- George Washington; Martha Custis Washington; Abigail Adams; John Adams; Thomas Jefferson; James Madison (show all 74); Dolley Madison; Elizabeth Monroe; James Monroe; John Quincy Adams; Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams; Rachel Jackson; John van Buren; Martin van Buren; William Henry Harrison; John Tyler; Julia Gardiner Tyler; Letitia Christian Tyler; James Knox Polk; Sarah Childress Polk; Franklin Pierce; Jane Pierce; James Buchanan; Abraham Lincoln; Mary Todd Lincoln; Andrew Johnson; Eliza Johnson; Julia Dent Grant; Ulysses S. Grant; Lucy Webb Hayes; Rutherford B. Hayes; Chester A. Arthur; Frances Clara Cleveland; Grover Cleveland; Ida Saxton McKinley; William McKinley; Alice Roosevelt; Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt; Theodore Roosevelt; Nellie Taft; William Howard Taft; Edith Wilson; Ellen Wilson; Woodrow Wilson; Florence Harding; Warren G. Harding; Calvin Coolidge; Grace Coolidge; Herbert Hoover; Lou Hoover; Eleanor Roosevelt; Franklin Delano Roosevelt; Bess Truman; Harry S. Truman; Margaret Truman; Dwight D. Eisenhower; Mamie Doud Eisenhower; Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis; John F. Kennedy; Lady Bird Johnson; Lyndon Baines Johnson; Pat Nixon; Richard M. Nixon; Betty Ford; Gerald Ford; Jimmy Carter; Rosalynn Carter; Nancy Reagan; Barbara Bush; George H. W. Bush; Bill Clinton; Hillary Rodham Clinton; William Jennings Bryan; Winston Churchill
- Important places
- Washington, D.C., USA; White House, Washington, D.C., USA
- Epigraph
- I hope some day someone will take time to evaluate the true role of the wife of a President, and to assess the many burdens she has to bear and the contributions she makes. -- Harry S Truman
- First words
- A few months after Bill and Hillary Clinton settled into the White House, they invited me and my husband, Clifton Daniel, down from New York to have dinner and stay overnight with them.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)But she must remember -- first, last, and always -- she is the wife of a President who needs her strength and devotion as he struggles to lead America into an always unknown future.
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Statistics
- Members
- 312
- Popularity
- 103,004
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.38)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 1
