When you hear the name Clare Boothe Luce, I bet it does not register in your mind. You have never heard about Clare Boothe Luce in your history books, your government classes, or your women’s studies classes. Nevertheless, she is an important part of history, had a large role in our government, and was a very influential woman.
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Fear not. If your teachers won’t teach you about Clare Boothe Luce, I will.
Clare Boothe Luce was born in 1903, sixteen years before women had the right to vote nationally in the United States. At the age of 30, she became the managing editor of Vanity Fair. This was a massive accomplishment, especially when you consider that Time Magazine, which started only ten years after Vanity Fair, did not have its first female Managing Editor until 2013.
Clare was also an accomplished playwright. Her most popular play, The Women, ran on Broadway for 657 performances and was made into a movie twice, once in 1939 and again in 2008. The 2008 version starred Meg Ryan (Top Gun, When Harry Met Sally), Jada Pinkett Smith (wife of Will), Eva Mendes (Ryan Gosling’s baby mama), and Debra Messing (Will & Grace).
Clare was also an accomplish war journalist for Life magazine, doing interviews with such people as General Douglas MacArthur, Chiang Kai-Shek, and Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India. Her interview with General Douglas MacArthur was on the cover of Life on December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor.
Clare Booth Luce was elected to Congress from Connecticut’s fourth district in 1943. While in Congress, she became the first woman to sit on the Military Affairs Committee and was instrumental in the creation of the Atomic Energy Commission.
In 1953, Clare Boothe Luce did something no woman had ever done before. She was appointed to be the US Ambassador to Italy, becoming the first woman to hold a major ambassadorial post. At the time, Italy was dealing with a land dispute with Yugoslavia and combating its communist constituency.
Italy was not receptive to Clare at first, but she soon proved them wrong. Within two years, the Trieste crisis with Yugoslavia was solved, and the port was returned to Italy. She also completed seventeen other diplomatic assignments during her time in Italy.
A story you’ll never hear is the story of how Clare Boothe Luce survived arsenic poisoning.
While serving in Italy, Clare became increasingly ill. Blood tests revealed that arsenic was to blame. Because Clare was so outspoken against communism, foul play was feared. A CIA investigation revealed the true cause of the poisoning. Clare’s bedroom ceiling was painted with ornate roses, and that paint contained arsenate of lead. The particles from the paint (triggered by the vibration of the washing machine above) were falling down onto Clare while she slept, relaxed, or worked in bed.
After serving as Ambassador to Italy, and briefly to Brazil, Clare served on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Broad for Nixon and Reagan.
In 1983, President Reagan presented Clare with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, making her the first female member of Congress to receive the award.
Clare Boothe Luce blazed trails not only for women, but for Americans, and yet she is left out of history books as if she never mattered at all.
I challenge you to remember Clare Boothe Luce and investigate other important people in our nation’s history who have been seemingly forgotten.
If you are interested in learning more about Clare Boothe Luce, check out the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, named after this amazing woman, at cblpi.org
Several biographies have been written about Clare Boothe Luce, by authors such as Wilfred Sheed and Stephen Shadegg, and Daniel Alf.
