Edith and Woodrow : the Wilson White House / Phyllis Lee Levin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Levin, Phyllis Lee.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924.

Wilson, Woodrow.

Wilson, Edith Bolling Galt, 1872-1961.

Wilson, Edith Bolling Galt.

Presidents--United States--Biography.

Presidents.

United States.

Presidents' spouses--United States--Biography.

Presidents' spouses.

Married people--United States--Biography.

Married people.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

606 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Scribner, [2001]

Summary:

Constructing a thrilling, tightly contained narrative around a trove of previously undisclosed documents, medical diagnoses, White House memoranda, and internal documents, acclaimed journalist and historian Phyllis Lee Levin sheds new light on the central role of Edith Bolling Galt in Woodrow Wilson's administration.

Shortly after Ellen Wilson's death on the eve of World War I in 1914, President Wilson was swept off his feet by Edith Bolling Galt. They were married in December 1915, and, Levin shows, Edith Wilson set out immediately to consolidate her influence on him and tried to destroy his relationships with Colonel House, his closest friend and adviser, and with Joe Tumulty, his longtime secretary. Wilson resisted these efforts, but Edith was persistent and eventually succeeded.

With the quick ending of World War I following America's entry in 1918, Wilson left for the Paris Peace Conference, where he pushed for the establishment of the League of Nations. Congress, led by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, resisted the idea of an international body that would require one country to go to the defense of another and blocked ratification. Defiant, Wilson set out on a cross-country tour to convince the American people to support him. It was during the middle of this tour, in the fall of 1919, that he suffered a devastating stroke and was rushed back to Washington. Although there has always been controversy regarding Edith Wilson's role in the eighteen months remaining of Wilson's second term, it is clear now from newly released medical records that the stroke had totally incapacitated him. Citing this information and numerous specific memoranda, journals, and diaries, Levin makes a powerfully persuasive case that Mrs. Wilson all but singlehandedly ran the country during this time. Ten years in the making, Edith and Woodrow is a magnificent, dramatic, and deeply rewarding work of history.

Contents:

Part I A First Marriage, a Widower, a Romance 15

1. "A great capacity for loving the gentle sex" 17

2. "Among the foremost thinkers of his age" 26

3. "Turn a corner and meet your fate" 40

4. "Anyone can do anything they try to" 54

5. "A new world" for Edith Galt 66

6. "There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight" 74

7. The president's most trusted adviser, Colonel House 88

8. "Fit for counsel as any man" 98

9. "The awful earthquake" 111

10. Mary Peck, the dear friend he found in Bermuda 122

11. A wedding on December 18, 1915 139

Part II President and Mrs. Edith Bolling Wilson, Wartime 151

12. "The world is on fire" 153

13. "A peace without victory" 166

14. "Nothing less than war" 176

15. Fourteen Points 187

16. "She knows what her husband knows" 205

Part III Paris and Round-Trips on the SS Washington 225

17. "Such a Cinderella role" 227

18. "Is it a League of Nations or a League of notions?" 242

19. Paris to Washington, and back ... 253

20. The preacher and the Brahmin 268

21. A different president ... a different Paris 280

22. Wilson suffers a "flareback" 290

23. A Congress "frothing at the mouth" 305

24. Wilson's greatest publicity campaign 319

Part IV Illness 335

25. "The beginning of the deception of the American people" 337

26. "The President says" 350

27. Lodge's olive branch 366

28. The "Smelling Committee" pays a visit 384

29. The White House snubs the British ambassador 399

30. "Wilson's last mad act" 415

31. Edith Wilson as "foremost statesman" 428

32. Wilson for a third term 440

33. "Pecuniary anxieties" 455

Part V Retirement 467

34. Wilson & Colby 469

35. Wilson & Colby folds 475

36. "To my incomparable wife" 484

37. Edith Wilson on her own, 1924-61 496.

Notes:

"A Lisa Drew book."

Includes bibliographical references (pages [571]-584) and index.

ISBN:

0743211588

OCLC:

47081429