Sylvia Jukes MorrisCritiques

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

Price of Fame by Sylvia Jukes Morris

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS -PRINT: COPYRIGHT: (January 1, 2014) 6/17/2014 ; ISBN 978-0679457114; PUBLISHER: Random House; LENGTH: 752 pages [Info from Amazon]
-DIGITAL: COPYRIGHT: (January 1, 2014) 6/17/2014 ; PUBLISHER: Random House; LENGTH: 752 pages FILE SIZE: File size ‏ : ‎ 17375 KB [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: (January 1, 2014) 3/2/2015; PUBLISHER: Audible Studios; LENGTH: 23:29:00; Unabridged. [Info from Amazon]
(Film: No).

SERIES
Clare Booth Luce, Volume II

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
-SELECTION: I don’t recall how I decided to listen to this.
-ABOUT: This part II of a two-volume set on the life of Clare Booth Luce. I hadn’t heard of her before, but I imagine most adults in the 40’s through the 60’s had. If they hadn’t heard of her as an actress or a play write, then they’d heard of her as the first female congresswoman, or as an Ambassador.
-LIKED: I loved learning about the person and intricate details of the times in which she lived. I was glad I knew at least some of the people mentioned. While it made for a long book, especially once one realizes it’s Part II, I did love the thoroughness.
I also loved the section at the end where the author inserts herself into the story.
It held my interest all the way through.
-DISLIKED: I didn’t dislike anything about the way it was written. While Clare sounds like an extremely interesting and admirable person, and one I have compassion for, she sounds like someone who, had I met her, would not have given me the time of day, even if we were the only two people trapped in an elevator.
-OVERALL: I thoroughly enjoyed this book and wish the author was still around to send fan mail to. I have moved on to Part 1, “The Rage For Fame”.
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; Foreign Relations

SAMPLE QUOTATION: From Chapter 2 Globaloney:
“Although a Senate committee reiterated Clare’s misgivings about freedom of the skies the following day, press reports of her speech focused disapprovingly on the gibe of “globaloney.” Even Fortune, Harry’s most sedate magazine, dubbed it “an ill-mannered crack.” Time gave space to her detractors, including Henry Wallace, who huffed, “I am sure the vast bulk of Republicans do not want to stir up animosity against either our Russian or English allies.” Eleanor Roosevelt weighed in with, “Well, are we going to have a peaceful world or aren’t we? All nations should have free access to the world’s travel lanes.”31 The writer Dawn Powell, who had depicted Clare as a ruthless self-promoter in her 1942 novel, A Time to Be Born, remarked in her diary that Mrs. Luce, in attacking the Vice President, had “made such evil use of her new Congressional power.”32

Of 183 nationwide press clippings about the speech gathered by Clare’s staff, only 70 were favorable.33 A friendly columnist lamented that “it had to be left to a pretty woman to make the most-needed he-man speech on foreign policy that has been heard from either floor of the House since the war began.” Mrs. Luce, he wrote, was so well-known “for pulchritude, chic, wit and wisecracking that these got the headlines instead of the sound doctrines expounded and the grave warnings sounded.”34

RATING: 5 Stars

STARTED-FINISHED 7/2/2023 – 7/21/2023

This was an excellent book about the wife of one of America's most famous presidents. Edith knew Theodore Roosevelt from childhood, and, after the death of his first wife, married him and bore five rambunctious children. This biography gives a well-rounded examination of Edith's life. She could be unfailingly kind, but also had a mean streak. She told her stepdaughter Alice that Theodore had only married her mother because he was on the rebound, and, when Alice married, Edith told her she was glad to be rid of her. Yet, this lady and her husband did much to bring the Presidency and the White House closer to the people. It's a fascinating look at a lady we don't get to read much about in comparison with her superstar husband. A worthwhile and important read in the saga of the Roosevelts.

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.

I have read extensively about Theodore Roosevelt the past while as part of novel research. While this book on his wife, Edith, didn't add more to my notes, it was still a fascinating, well-done work. It was also incredibly long--just over 500-pages of fine print text, followed by almost 100 pages of footnotes and the like. Edith is certainly a complicated, private figure to analyze. On one hand, I respect that privacy, but as a historian, I'm horrified that she destroyed the bulk of her private papers and correspondence. Still, a lot of the Roosevelt's papers survived (in part because both Theodore and Edith were prolific writers) and Morris's work reflects intense research that brings Edith to life.