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“This absorbing, magnificently complete biography, the first to
be written based on Alice's own papers, presents her as the first
female celebrity of the twentieth century. What that meant in
terms of how she viewed herself and how she was viewed by her
famous father and an adoring public is explored in Cordery's impressively
astute psychological understanding of this quite complex personality.”
--Booklist starred review, 1 July 2007
“Cordery fully utilizes the personal papers of Alice Roosevelt
Longworth (1884-1980), frequently inserting entries from her diary
and letters to provide startlingly intimate material....A rigorous
portrait of a woman of strong opinions who surely should have
run for office herself. Promises to revive the old dame's reputation.”
--Kirkus, 10 July 2007
“Cordery pens an authoritative, intriguing portrait of a first
daughter who broke the mold.”
--Publishers Weekly, 18 July 2007
“A superb biography of one of twentieth century America's most
interesting and significant figures. At its best political biography
explores the ways in which an individual's psychology, circumstance,
education, and experience affect and reflect public life. In this
graceful, insightful chronicle of the life of Alice Roosevelt
Longworth, Washington's incomparable ‘Mrs. L,’ Cordery has done
just that.”
—Randall Woods author of LBJ: Architect of American Ambition
“Finally—a biography of Alice Roosevelt Longworth that presents
her in full and takes her seriously as a player in Washington
politics across seven decades and thirteen presidencies. Admirably
researched, perceptive, and as much fun as Mrs. L herself, Alice
adds scope and depth to our understanding of Washington's mores,
the inner workings of the American political machine, and the
endlessly captivating clan from which she came.”
—Patricia O’Toole, author of When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt
after the White House and The Five of Hearts: An Intimate
Portrait of Henry Adams and His Friends
“Stacy Cordery takes us far beyond the popular caricature of Alice
Longworth as a self- centered, malignantly-witty hellion. Marshaling
previously untapped family archives, this stunning new biography
paints a complex, vital portrait of the brilliant first-daughter
who, despite tragedies, cut a large and confident swath across
nearly a century of American history.”
—Edward J. Renehan Jr., author of The Lion's Pride: Theodore
Roosevelt and His Family in Peace and War
“A fine biography of America's ultimate--and eminently quotable--bad
girl. Stacy Cordery has fixed Alice Roosevelt Longworth on the
page in all her vibrant color.”
—Stacy Schiff, author of A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France,
and the Birth of America and Vera [Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov]
winner of the Pulitzer Prize
“I can’t remember the last time I so enjoyed a biography—and learned
so much. Stacy Cordery has painted a wondrously vibrant portrait
of one of America’s most complicated and intriguing woman, Alice
Roosevelt Longworth. Daughter of President Teddy Roosevelt, cousin
of Franklin and Eleanor, wife of the Speaker of the House, lover
of the Senator from Idaho, columnist, wit, political savant, Republican
booster, and the most esteemed Washington hostess of her era,
Alice has been missing from our history books for far too long.
Our thanks to Stacy Cordery for bringing her back, center stage,
where she belongs.”
—David Nasaw, author of Andrew Carnegie and The Chief:
The Life of William Randolph Hearst
“With her unprecedented access to Alice Roosevelt Longworth’s
correspondence, Stacy A. Cordery has recreated a vivid picture
not only of the woman who was for a time America’s princess, but
also of the American Century. Meticulously researched and recounted
in lively and evocative prose, Alice sheds new light on TR’s White
House, the growth of the modern cultures of celebrity and teenage
rebellion, the backroom politics and social skirmishes of the
nation’s capital, and inter-war isolationism and postwar anti-Communism.
At the center of it all sits the inimitable Mrs. L, that other
Washington Monument, whose life, loves, enthusiasms and losses
Cordery illuminates with a subtlety never before possible. Alice
is as delightful as it is eye-opening to read.”
—Amanda Smith, editor of Hostage to Fortune: The Letters of
Joseph P. Kennedy
“At long last, Alice Roosevelt Longworth has the biography that
she has needed. Her life reads like a Cinderella story, except
that the stepmother became one of her best friends as well as
severest critics, Prince Charming turned out to be something of
a rotter but able and loyal in his own bizarre way, and a rough
diamond of a lover hovered in the wings and fathered her only
child. With insight, sympathy, a critical eye, and prodigious
research, Stacy Cordery has produced a portrait of America’s one
true political princess and one of the most important and fascinating
women ever in the country’s public life.”
—John Milton Cooper, Jr., E. Gordon Fox Professor of American
Institutions, University of Wisconsin
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