Nellie Taft: The Unconventional First Lady of the Ragtime Era - Hardcover

9780060513825: Nellie Taft: The Unconventional First Lady of the Ragtime Era
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From critically acclaimed presidential-family historian Carl Sferrazza Anthony comes the first biography of Helen Herron Taft, the unconventional wife of the twenty-seventh President of the United States who, in an era before Eleanor Roosevelt, was overt about her power and saw to it that her husband both aspired to, and won, the highest office in the land.

On the morning of William Howard Taft's inauguration, Nellie Taft publicly expressed that theirs would be a joint administration by shattering precedent and demanding that she ride alongside her husband down Pennsylvania Avenue, a seat previously held for the outgoing President. In addition to her passion for entertaining, this progressive First Lady was an advocate for higher education and partial suffrage for women, initiated legislation to improve working conditions for federal employees, and created Washington's famous grove of blossoming cherry trees. She smoked, drank, and gambled without regard to societal judgment. During Taft's time as the governor general of the Philippines, she broke racial and class boundaries. Nellie Taft's fate was ultimately bound to larger events, including the Titanic sinking and Teddy Roosevelt's creation of the Bull Moose Party.

Drawn from previously unpublished diaries, a lifetime of love letters between Will and Nellie, and detailed family correspondence and recollections, Anthony develops a riveting portrait of Nellie Taft as one of the strongest links in the series of women -- from Abigail Adams to Hillary Rodham Clinton -- often critically declared "co-Presidents."

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About the Author:

Carl Sferrazza Anthony, the author of nine books, is considered the nation's expert on the subject of presidential wives and families. He has written extensively for publications, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, American Heritage, Smithsonian, and Town & Country, and also writes screenplays. He currently lives in Los Angeles.

From Publishers Weekly:
Anthony (First Ladies; Florence Harding; etc.) takes on one of the least compelling First Ladies and does his best to make her colorful. Helen "Nellie" Herron Taft (1861–1943) went through life underwhelmed by power, having visited the White House for the first time at age 17. Despite Anthony's occasional attempts to make Nellie out to be a revolutionary ragtime heroine of women's rights and a precursor of such policy-driven first ladies as Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton, Nellie seems, on the facts, to have been a typical wife of her time and a devoted mother to her three children. Yet, as Anthony shows, the one area where she was decidedly strong was in her always shrewd and sometimes shrill advocacy for her husband and his interests (think Nancy Reagan). Nellie's other attributes—such as her skill at fashioning elaborate White House balls—may be less remarkable to readers. The best part of his narrative concerns the year 1909–1910, when Nellie struggled successfully to come back from a debilitating stroke, continuing to run the household with the help of a daughter retrieved from college. Anthony is also adept at portraying the complex, calculated bitterness with which Nellie greeted TR's 1912 attempt to usurp his onetime golden boy, Taft, when TR mounted a third-party challenge that toppled him. 16 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW. Agent, Lisa Bankoff.(Apr. 12)
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  • PublisherWilliam Morrow
  • Publication date2005
  • ISBN 10 0060513829
  • ISBN 13 9780060513825
  • BindingHardcover
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages544
  • Rating

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