Rage for Fame: The Ascent of Clare Boothe Luce

Clare Boothe Luce #1

by Sylvia Jukes Morris

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK
 
“Her technique was aim for the top,” an envious colleague wrote of Clare Boothe Luce. No American woman of the twentieth century aimed so accurately, or rose so far, as this legendary playwright, politician, and social seductress. Born in New York’s Spanish Harlem, with nothing to recommend her but beauty, ferocious intelligence, and dry wit, she transformed herself into the youthful   managing editor of Vanity Fair . She married two millionaires and wrote three Broadway hits, including the biting satire, The Women . Her second husband, Henry Luce—the publisher of Time, Fortune, and later at her suggestion Life —was only one of the dozens of men she entranced. Adding politics and power to journalism and drama, Clare used sex, street smarts, acid humor, and money to plot a career more improbable than anything in her own fiction. Not content with mere wealth and the acclaim of transatlantic café society, Clare Boothe Luce confessed to a “rage for fame.” This extraordinary book—the result of more than fifteen years of research by Sylvia Jukes Morris, her chosen biographer—tells how she achieved it.
 
Praise for Rage for Fame
 
“A model biography . . . the sort that only real writers can write.” —Gore Vidal, The New Yorker
 
“[The] riveting first part of a two-volume biography . . . Relentlessly candid, meticulously documented, Morris’s book traces [Clare Boothe] Luce’s rocketing rise from illegitimacy and poverty to wealth, power and fame.” — Hartford Courant
 
“Powerful and resonant, admiring at times, always critical, at times searing, but ultimately fair.” — The Philadelphia Inquirer
 
“Crammed with enough drama for several mini-series.” —The New York Times
 
“An important book about an important figure . . . a stunning feat of biography.” — Forbes
 
“A dishy biography that is also a formidable work of research.” —Slate
 
“One of those rare books where the reader dreads the final page.” —Newport News Daily Press

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Biography Memoir, Politics, Historical, American History

592 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 1997

About the author

Sylvia Jukes Morris was a British-born biographer, based in the United States. Her two volume biography on Clare Boothe Luce is considered to be an example of both excellent research and writing. She spent 33 years on the Luce biography, examining 460,000 items at the Library of Congress that stretched 319 linear feet. She was married to writer Edmund Morris ( The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt) from 1966 until his death in 2019. She passed away from cancer eight months after her husband's death. She was eighty-four years old at the time of her death.

Reviews

[Bob Mayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating biography of a woman who cut her own way in a time when the rules were very different. She could be considered famous and/or notorious.

Well written and the title gives you an idea of the subject's motivation. A great insight to a swath of history and a woman's path in it.

[Marti · Rating 4 out of 5]

My mother and I recently went on a tour of old homes on the Cooper River (Moncks Corner, SC) which included CBL's Mepkin Plantation, which is now a Trappist Monastery. Intrigued, I googled her and found that one of my all-time famous witticisms ("No Good Deed Goes Unpunished") is attributed to her. I immediately bought this biography. It's an excellent read and a fascinating introduction to a woman with the classic rags-to-riches background. She was a witty, beautiful, opportunistic, disciplined, and tireless self promoter. Professionally, she was a writer, editor, playwright, politician and "the first American woman appointed to a major ambassadorial post abroad". This volume tells her story from birth to her election to Congress in the early 1940s. The author's follow up (Price for Fame) is coming out in summer of 2014.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a fascinating read- I had no idea what a feminist intellectual Clare Boothe Luce was and especially during the 30s and 40s. Her life story inspired me and reminded me of the importance of living passionately and true to one's ambitions no matter the cost.

[Jim Cullison · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the great page-turner biographies, this first volume of the Clare Boothe Luce saga combines unbeatable documentation and research with spellbinding writing. This is a fascinating portrayal of a fascinating American success story. Very highly recommended!

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A biography about a woman that Frida Kahlo once referred to as a "wench" and Gertrude Stein called "bitchy," Clare Booth Luce was the most influential figure in 20th century politics and news that you've probably never heard of.
Sylvia Jukes Morris writes a blisteringly realistic portrait of a very complicated, sometimes brilliant, oftentimes insufferable woman who lived her life flitting from one astonishingly demanding career to the next.
This woman was a reporter, a playwright, a war correspondent on the front lines of World War II and a politician all before the age of 40 and all simultaneously.
You may think she sounds incredible, a feminist icon, but unfortunately her narcissism and obvious hatred of other women held her back from that.
Clare Booth Luce struck me as a kind of early 20th century Caroline Calloway. She was a very talented writer, able to sway huge crowds with a well put together speech, but her actual personality left a lot to be desired.
However, this book was great because the author called specific attention to Luce's faults throughout.
I've read a lot of biographies and I've never read one that was more realistic about the person that it was portraying.
Luce is not glorified in this, if anything, I was shocked to learn that she actually participated in the writing process shortly before her death. At times, this book is a call out post of epic proportions, and that's why I enjoyed it.
Shockingly, despite being nearly 500 pages, this is only the first volume! I'm not surprised considering the length of Luce's life and the amount of diaries and personal documents she appears to have kept.
I have already ordered the second book because I want to know where this thing goes and I really appreciated the author's writing style.

[Tracie Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rage For Fame by Sylvia Jukes Morris

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
-PRINT: COPYRIGHT: (1997) April 1, 2014; ISBN 978-0812992496; PUBLISHER: Random House Publishing Group; LENGTH: 592 pages [Paperback Info from Amazon]
-DIGITAL: COPYRIGHT: (1997February 6, 2013; PUBLISHER: Random House; LENGTH: 594 pages FILE SIZE: 15691 KB [Kindle Info from Amazon] *Note: There are photos here. If you listen to the audio, don’t forget to check out the digital if you are like me and like to have an idea of who is who visually.
*AUDIO: COPYRIGHT: (1997) 2/24/2015; PUBLISHER: Audible Studios; LENGTH: 16:47:00; Unabridged. [Audio Info from Amazon]
(Film: No).

SERIES
Clare Booth Luce, Volume I

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
-SELECTION: I read/listened to the second volume, and during the course of that discovered it was Volume II, which compelled me to read Volume 1..
-ABOUT: This part I of a two-volume set on the life of Clare Booth Luce, focuses on her youth, her mother, the romantic lives of both, other acquaintances of Clare’s, her professional life of acting, play writing, book writing, Vanity Fair editing, Foreign Correspondence writing for Life magazine, and the beginnings of her political life.
-LIKED: I enjoyed learning about the person and intricate details of the times in which she lived. I was interested to learn that there was such a thing as a “social register”, consisting of the well healed folk. I found Clare even less likable in this volume than I had in the first, but still, her ambitious and forceful personality, underpinned, I believe by insecurity, is fascinating.
-DISLIKED: No, I didn’t dislike anything. The author researched her subject thoroughly and wrote magnificently.

AUTHOR: Sylvia Jukes Morris:
” Morris was born in Worcestershire, England and educated at Dudley Girl's Grammar School and London University. She taught history and English literature in London before marrying Edmund Morris in 1966 and emigrating to the U.S. two years later. After a period of freelance travel and food writing, she published Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady, the first-book-length biography of Theodore Roosevelt's second wife, in 1980; the book was based on hitherto private family documents. Reviews were positive; Annalyn Swan in Newsweek called it "marvelously full-blooded [and] engagingly written." The Christian Science Monitor said the book represented "craftsmanship of the highest order," and R. W. B. Lewis in The Washington Post Book World, called it "an endlessly engrossing book, at once of historical and human importance." The Modern Library reissued the biography in the fall of 2001.” [ ___Amazon.com ]

“Sylvia Jukes Morris was a British-born biographer, based in the United States. Her two volume biography on Clare Boothe Luce is considered to be an example of both excellent research and writing. She spent 33 years on the Luce biography, examining 460,000 items at the Library of Congress that stretched 319 linear feet. She was married to writer Edmund Morris ( The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt) from 1966 until his death in 2019. She passed away from cancer eight months after her husband's death. She was eighty-four years old at the time of her death.” [__Goodreads]

NARRATOR: Elisabeth Rodgers:
“ Elisabeth S. Rodgers is an actress and audiobook narrator, living and working in New York City.

After graduating from Princeton University, she came to New York and completed a two year program
at William Esper Studio, where she studied with Maggie Flanigan. She has also studied extensively with
Tim Phillips. Her audiobook narration training came from Robin Miles, who has also directed her in
several productions, as has Paul Ruben.

She has recorded over 200 books for a multitude of publishers, including Audible, AudioGo (formerly
BBC Audiobooks America), Benefit Media, Blackstone Audio, Brilliance Audio, Hachette Audio,
Harper Audio, MetaBook, Recorded Books, and Talking Book Productions.

Her onstage work - ranging from Shakespeare to children's theatre, original/experimental theatre, and
corporate training events - has taken her everywhere from City Center in the Big Apple to regional stages
in New York, Illinois, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, Oklahoma, Georgia, Minnesota...
and even Tanzania.” [__elisabethrodgers.com]

Elisabeth did an excellent narration here.

GENRE: Nonfiction; Biography; American History; Women’s Studies;

LOCATIONS: Multiple

TIME FRAME 20th century

SUBJECTS: Society; Politics; Theater; Celebrities; Publishers; Writers; Clare Boothe Luce; Henry (Harry) Luce; WWII; Leaders; Journalism; Foreign Correspondence; Life Magazine; Time Magazine

SAMPLE QUOTATION: From Chapter 15 A Bibelot of the Most Enchanting Order:
“Every day Clare felt more confident of her powers. Margaret Case Morgan came to work one morning and “found that she was employing my secretary and I was employing hers.” Clare had lured the former away by paying twice the usual salary out of her own pocket. On another occasion Mrs. Morgan left a pair of complimentary first-night tickets on her desk while she went to lunch.

When I looked for them around five-thirty, they were gone. After a frantic and vain search, I called up the press agent, who agreed to have duplicates for me at the box office that night.
When my date and I walked down the theater aisle with my duplicate tickets, guess who had the real tickets and who was occupying my seats? Right. None other than Clare Boothe and escort. I was so mad that I merely said to her, “Enjoy the play, dear,” and stalked back up the aisle. My date and I went to the movies.
Next morning in the office Clare said, “But you left the tickets on your desk, so of course I thought you didn’t want them!”36

It was becoming evident that whatever Clare desired, she simply took, or tried to take. Condé Nast told Mrs. Morgan that she had even offered to buy a controlling interest in his company.37 Ironically, only Donald stood between her and the job she now lusted for: that of managing editor.”

RATING: 5 Stars

STARTED-FINISHED 7/21/2023 – 7/30/2023

[Diane Lybbert · Rating 2 out of 5]

This extremely long (450+ pages) biography details Clare's life from early childhood being raised by self-absorbed mother and no father, through clerical job at a fashion magazine, through various affairs with (mostly married) older men, whose money and influence she uses to attain even greater things - foreign war correspondent in WWII, and finally political office. She is worldly wise, but has little formal education. She uses her looks, wit, and strong personality to get what she wants. Story of a selfish, narcissistic, immature woman, in my opinion. The book was entirely too long, giving much more detail than I necessarily wanted (room/house remodeling, table place settings, etc.), but it was very well researched and well written.

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with so many biographies, when reviewing this book it is hard to separate the quality of the story from the quality of the telling. The story of Clare Booth Luce's ascent is absolutely mind boggling. An illegitimate child of a travelling piano salesman she rose to be one of the most influential people of the twentieth century. A stunning success in multiple fields and an incredible innovator if not a solo success in others she also built a personal network that included some of the most powerful and influential figures in the world. The reader almost gets the sense that the author is intentionally name dropping all these people. So the story itself is incredible.

So is the sourcing. Luce kept a diary which was both insightful and explicit and which, to a reader recounting events nearly a century old, comes across as extremely contemporary so forward looking and thinking was Luce (though a bit of a political reactionary at times.) It is astounding to read about Luce's opinions of the sexual performance of various well known historical figures about whom I have read other biographies which dealt not at all with their personal lives. The extensive quoting of the diary makes the book come across as deeply insightful and very true.

Except that Luce, like us all, told herself many lies of both omission and commission. So despite the wealth of research and personal detail some questions go unanswered or even unasked. The key to Luce's success in the world was her expensive education financed by a Jewish lover of her mothers. In many ways the key relationship in Luce's life was the one between her mother and her patron and how this worked is never really spelled out. The motivations of Clare's patron, absolutely essential in launching her into the position from which she could cultivate the rich and the powerful, remain hard to discern. He certainly loved and cared for Clare, but his relationship with Clare's mother, who had multiple other partners and even married another man while still retaining this patronage, is an extreme mystery which is never really explained.

What does come across in the book, though it is never stated explicitly, is that Clare Booth conquered the WASP aristocracy of pre-war America through an extreme intelligence honed by a strange combination of poverty and uncertainty and expensive schooling. She must have learned from her mother how to entrance and manage multiple male admirers and how to center herself despite keeping these relationships going. She took these skills and endowments and created for herself, with remarkable success, a life that she defined on her own, and lived as she pleased. It's a great story but one that it is difficult to emulate because the circumstances that created it were so unique and unexplained.

[Janelle Bogart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t often read biographies. I usually find them less interesting than a novel filled with intentional character development, theme and plot. I also find that fame doesn’t necessarily mean one will have an interesting life. None of this was the case for Sylvia Jukes Morris’s biography on Clare Boothe Luce. Morris writes as if she and Claire were intimate friends, weaving in excerpts of Claire’s life from personal letters, newspaper articles, comments from friends and family and Morris’s personal opinion. Clare Luce was quite an interesting person: vain, deceptive and allegedly beautiful, she had an obsession with fame and possessed the intelligence to match it. Morris tells the story of Clare’s life starting with the opening night of her most famous play, “The Women” and leading her reader through Claire’s tumultuous relationships with her mother, brother, her mother’s husbands, Claire’s ex-lovers, and other women. Even while it seemed that Claire had a challenge with getting along with others, Morris writes sympathetically of her heroine, specifically when it came to her aspirations, and walks us through the fascination of Clare’s marriage to a billionaire then to the Times and Life magazine founder, her rise as an editor of Vogue magazine, her career as a playwright, her traveling journey as a correspondent during WW2, and her most interesting career path as that of a congresswoman. As a reader you will either love or hate Claire but you can’t deny her insatiable desire for sex, money and power, all which she eventually inherits at the expense of others. Whatever her failings as a wife, mother, friend and daughter, you have to admire her pluckiness and sheer tenacity with getting exactly what she wanted in life. Ill admit, it was something I both envied and abhorred. Another talent that Morris possesses is the ability to illustrate the style, events and social norms of the time period between the 1900s to the 1940s. I found myself learning so much more about this snapshot in time than I could learn from reading a history book. However, bring a dictionary because Morris writes quite eloquently and utilizes a plethora of complex words. All in all, I would be open to reading more biographies as long as they were written by Sylvia.

[Jwt Jan50 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a thorough biography of a very complex woman. I'm not sure that CBL ever really 'knew' herself or allowed anyone to really befriend her. The title is certainly apt. She feels like LBJ's analysis of his popularity - very broad, but shallow. This has been on my 'to read' list for years - since I came across it in my local library in the 90's. Hard to find a copy now. This one came from the Anchorage Public Library. I read in parallel with Towles' 'Rules of Civility.' Worked for me having the 'real' day to day of that 'set' of New Yorkers intertwined with Towles characters from the same period.

[Viktoriya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't like reading biographies, let alone biographies of people I have never heard of before. And yet, somehow I bought this book on an impulse while in a gift shop at the Capitol. Several years later, after finally reading it, I am very glad it happened. Clare Boothe Luce was quite a person. There were times I was shouting "You go girl!!!" and on the next paragraph I wanted to slap her and shout "What the hell are you doing?". It was a roller-coaster ride, for sure.

[Joseph J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

RIP Sylvia. Her death sent me back to these two phenomenal volumes on a controversial and often unlikable woman. Adultery. Divorce. The Stage: THE WOMEN. Powerful men like Baruch and Luce. Politics. Catholicism and Fulton Sheen and the Vatican. What a life lived through two volumes. It was a LONG wait for the second, but very worth it. Sylvia, you and Edmund will be very missed.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sylvia Jukes Morris is a fantastic writer, which is why I couldn't put down this or the next volume of this biography. What an amazing person Clare Boothe Luce was, and by that I mean, what an extraordinarily narcissistic and selfish person.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of a two volume biography of Clare Booth Luce and it is well researched and well written. However, I wish the author hadn’t felt compelled to frequently criticize her subject. I don’t doubt that Luce had her flaws, but I can make those conclusions myself.

[Bookshop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engaging and fascinating book. I think this is an authorizes biography so there were bits and pieces of self-promotion but Claire Boothe was the original (and better version) of Carrie Bradshaw.

[Carol Brennan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm only sorry that Sylvia Jukes Morris died a few years ago so I could not send fanmail and tell her what an utter masterpiece this & Vol. 2 is.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sylvia Jukes Morris’s biography published in 1997 of Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987) is a fascinating account of the life of a beautiful, very talented writer as well as an ambitious woman. Clare was born in poverty and raised by a single mother, her mother pushed her to excel at all she did and that education was key to success.

Clare Boothe Brokaw in 1929 started writing captions at Vogue to rise swiftly to the managing editor of Conde Nast’s literary jewel, Vanity Fair. In 1934 or 35 she published her first book entitled “Stuffed Shirts.” In the summer of 1932 she had a brief affair with Bernard Barack. In 1935 CBL married Henry Luce founder and editor in chief of Time, Fortune and Life. They were happily married until his death in 1967.

In 1935 CBL wrote a play “Abide with Me” which was a flop. In 1936 her play “The Women” opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway as a great hit. She also wrote “Come to the Stable” which was also made into a movie. She also wrote the play “Margin for Error”. In 1940 she wrote a critically acclaimed book on the fall of France and became a war correspondent for Life magazine. On January 11, 1944 her only child Ann Clare Brokaw was killed in an automobile accident while she was a senior at Stanford University.

In 1942 Luce won a Republican seat in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Connecticut. During her second term in the House she was instrumental in the creation of the Atomic energy Commission. In 1946 she was the co-author of the Luce-Celler Act of 1946 which increased the number of Indians and Filipinos permitted to immigrate to the U.S. and allowed them to become naturalized citizens. She became a formidable political orator in congress.

In 1953 she was appointed Ambassador to Italy, the first American woman to hold a major diplomatic post. In 1959 she was nominated U.S. Ambassador to Brazil by President Eisenhower but she declined the job. She died in October 1987 as Grande dame of the Republican Party. I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. Elizabeth Rodgers narrated the story.
.

[Marcie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The upside of this biography is that it was a fair portrait of a woman of great ambition and drive who achieved nearly every goal she set for herself. Ms. Morris doesn't whitewash the fact that Clare Booth Luce was an incredible narcissist who only cared about other people vis a vis their relationship to her own ambitions. To her credit, she may have advanced the cause of feminism by (albeit unwittingly) by participating in a man's world on her own terms. The Anti-Eleanor Roosevelt if you will.

Where this biography fails is with it's abrupt ending, like someone switched off the projector in the middle of the movie. Though it was written in 1997, ten years after Mrs. Luce died, the book ends with her election to Congress in 1942. Nothing about the death of her daughter in 1944, the death of her husband in 1967, her ambassadorships to Italy and Brazil, etc. There wasn't even a conclusion. I actually flipped pages to see if the last chapter had been torn out.

Was this a Volume I and I just wasn't aware of it?

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Rage for Fame: The Ascent of Clare Boothe Luce" is an unflinching look at the life of Clare Boothe Luce from birth until her election to Congress in 1942. Morris describes a complicated, egotistical, self-involved woman who coasted from adventure to adventure, success to success, and lover to lover with only the most minor friction to slow her down. Glib and beautiful, young Luce seems almost afraid of testing her own obvious intelligence in anything but the most superficial pursuits.

Morris also provides an interesting account of how Luce seemed to regard even her closest family members -- her mother, daughter, husbands, etc. -- as supporting players in her story.

I'm looking forward to reading the second volume.

[Laura C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had alwasy wented to find out more about Claire Boothe Luce. Born out of wedlock to an ambitious and beautiful mother, she was taught early how to use men to get what seh wanted. A classic story of sleeping her way to the top, she was also stunningly smart. She became a playwright, editor of Vanity Fair Magazine, war reporter, far right Congresswoman, and Ambassador, all the while being perfectly dressed and smelling divine. She married for money, but never let that stop her from multiple affairs - always with men who were smart and powerful. Both frightening and fascinating.

[Lee Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew the name, Clare Boothe Luce, and assumed she was married to Time's Henry Luce. If you told me she wrote the play The Women, I'd say of course. But that was my sole knowledge of Clare Boothe Luce. This was a fascinating read of a woman driven to be rich and famous, propelled by a mother who had a similar philosophy of life. In the end, Clare ends up being a decent writer and having a real purpose in life other than pursuit of money and fame. I liked it enough to want to read the The Honorable Clare Boothe Luce.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew very little about CBL before reading this, other than she was the author of THE WOMEN.
Well, now I know too much. CBL was over-the-top, all-consuming, half-crazy and power-mad woman. I felt positively inadequate when reading about how she looked at life. Wow.
I wish it had been a complete biography, although I understand why it ended when it did in 1942. It was the ascent of CBL, not the decline.
Still, an amazing book about an even more amazing woman.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting historically, but long and has started to drag a bit. Will go back soon to finish. About Clare Booth Luce who rose from nothing to fame in the 40's. Married publisher Henry Luce. She was a writer, Congresswoman, Ambassador, converted to Catholicism as an adult, although she also had several affairs. Went into all her endeavors with a passion & was often considered rather difficult to get along with.

[Charles Kerns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clare Boothe Luce sticks it where no woman has gone before. And gets away with it.

Morris has apparently set CBL as her life work, to read every letter/journal/diary and quote the memorable or juicy parts in her book(s). Thanks. Best of all, her writing did not get in CBL's way as she sliced through the 20th century.

I thank God I never met CBL. She sounds like a terror.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read for biography lovers. CBL is a name we have all heard of, but I for one did not know much about her. Fascinating woman and fascinating story. Although she doesn't appear to have been a very likable character. Her life spanned all the interesting events of the 20th century and Clare was right there in the thick of it.

[Emily Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most engaging biographies I have read in years. I was so bummed when I got to the end and realized it was only part one! But a fascinating portrait of a really talented and beautiful woman.

[Phil Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first of a two volume biography of Clare Boothe Luce, author, reporter, Congresswoman, political rabble rouser,and wife of Time-Life founder Henry Luce. Interesting for the portrayal of its subject, her times and the many characters in her life.

[Toni · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had no knowledge of Clare Boothe Luce prior to reading this book. I am very interested in reading the second installment of this biography. I thought that the author dealt with the subject matter in a very fair and unjudgemental way.

[Tamara Willems · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly researched, in-depth portrait of an intelligent, enigmatic driven woman's carefully calculated rise in American society and indeed a place in it's history.
Very much looking forward to the second volume by Sylvia Jukes Morris.

[Christine Hagstrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Started this as a Vanity Fair excerpt and couldn't put down the two-part book series.