Price of Fame: The Honorable Clare Boothe Luce Hardcover - 2014

Media reviews

Advance praise for Price of Fame
 
“Sylvia Juke Morris’s epic Price of Fame is a thrilling account of one of the twentieth century’s most intriguing and ambitious society figures. This second installment is every bit as compelling as the first. The life of Clare Boothe Luce illuminates the complex forces and fierce crosswinds behind the rise of the modern American woman.”—Dr. Amanda Foreman, bestselling author of Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire and A World on Fire
 
“By the time she was 40, Clare Boothe Luce (1903–1987) had been an actress, Broadway playwright, war correspondent, managing editor of Vanity Fair and Republican congresswoman from Connecticut. . . . Blonde, beautiful and glamorous (Morris includes details about Luce’s sumptuous wardrobe at every occasion), she took many lovers, with a special preference for men in uniform. . . . Luce’s frenzied need to engage in all-consuming work was fueled by a daily round of stimulants and sedatives; she fell into black depressions and paranoia, especially if she felt rejected or ignored. Desperately, she needed to be the center of attention. . . . Morris perceptively reveals the nightmare in this evenhanded and intimate portrait.”—Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Sylvia Jukes Morris’s Rage for Fame, a New York Times Notable Book
 
“A model biography . . . the sort that only real writers can write.”—Gore Vidal, The New Yorker
 
“Crammed with enough drama for several mini-series.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
 
“A stunning feat of biography.”—Christopher Buckley, Forbes
 
“Relentlessly candid, meticulously documented, [it] traces Luce’s rocketing rise from illegitimacy and poverty to wealth, power and fame.”—Arline B. Tehan, Hartford Courant
 
“[A] dishy biography that is also a formidable work of research.”—Margaret Talbot, Slate
 
“One of those rare books where the reader dreads the final page.”—Lois Spratley, Newport News Daily Press