Barbara Bush: A Biography - Hardcover

Kilian, Pamela

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312076495 ISBN 13: 9780312076498

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1992

Synopsis

A biography of the current First Lady describes Mrs. Bush's dark side, her penchant for skewering critics of her husband, her eccentricities, her relationship with George's family, her philosophies on life, and more. 75,000 first printing. $20,000 ad/promo.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

Not an authorized biography, but longtime journalist Kilian (What Was Watergate?, YA, 1990) has assembled enough quotes from friends, family, and Mrs. Bush herself to create a lively and credible portrait of this immensely popular First Lady. The story of Barbara Bush's early years could be that of many of her contemporaries. Born into an affluent upper-middle-class home, second daughter in a family of three, she enjoyed a normal childhood filled with friends, sports, and school. Popular and athletic, she was closer to her father than her mother, an austere and aloof woman who was always admonishing young Barbara to watch her weight. Barbara's meeting with George Bush, then a senior at Andover, during the 1941 Christmas season began her long journey from conventional expectations of marriage and family to her national prominence as First Lady. Kilian details the tragedy of the death from leukemia, at age three, of the Bushes' daughter and the rising political career of George. While Barbara has been the uncomplaining good soldier who looked after the children and moved when George's career demanded it, she also, Kilian shows, is a remarkably strong and generous woman, forthright and unaffected. As she told the Wellesley graduating class, she has made three major choices in her life: ``to get involved in something larger'' than herself; to marry George Bush; and ``to make her family and friends paramount, to cherish the human connections.'' The First Lady is also quick to point out the rewards of public life: ``I feel like I have had the best, the most exciting, thrilling life anyone could ever have.'' Barbara Bush is good copy, and Kilian has made the most of her very appealing subject, who seems to have resisted even her darkest moments with common sense and minimal self-pity. An informative biography, then, but not definitive. (Sixteen-page photo insert-- not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly

The subject of this biography did not make herself available for interview--but "her White House Press Office was of great help to me," assures Kilian ( What Was Watergate? ) innocently. Scores of Barbara Bush's friends--childhood companions, finishing-school chums, political colleagues--go on record here (unsurprisingly?) to express their loyalty and admiration. There are few warts, indeed, in the composite that emerges of a first lady who is often more popular than her husband. Much is made of Barbara Bush's symbolism as a wife and mother who puts home and family first; her articulation of traditional values; and her advocacy of reading. The well-known facts of the Bushes' affluent background, their wartime romance and their companionable rise through the political ranks are recounted in the personal anecdotes and reminiscences. The vicissitudes of family life--a child's early death; a son's involvement in a banking scandal; a daughter's divorce--are, by contrast, only lightly touched on. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0312076495
• ISBN 13: 9780312076498
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 245