Today's Honorary Subscriber: Show Biography

Claire Boothe (1903 - 1987)

Today's Honorary Subscriber is the talented, wealthy, beautiful, and controversial Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987) who gained fame in such diverse endeavors as editor, playwright, politician, journalist, and diplomat.

Born in New York City, Clare Boothe finished her schooling at "The Castle" school in Tarrytown, N.Y., graduating in 1919. Her original ambition was to become an actress and she enrolled in a New York City acting school. Losing interest, she dropped out to go on a European tour with her parents. Returning from Europe, she met and married George Brokaw, a New York clothing manufacturer twenty-four years her senior. In 1924 she gave birth to a daughter, Ann Clare Brokaw, but her marriage to Brokaw ended in divorce in 1929, and to support herself she joined the staff of the fashion magazine Vogue, as an editorial assistant.

In 1931, Boothe (she had re-assumed her maiden name following her divorce) became associate editor of Vanity Fair magazine, for which she began writing short sketches satirizing New York society figures. In 1933 she became managing editor of Vanity Fair, but resigned a year later to write plays full time. Then in late 1935, at age 32, she married 37-year-old Henry Luce, publisher of Time and Fortune (and later Life and Sports Illustrated) magazines. Henry had two sons by a previous marriage, but their own marriage, which lasted 32 years, would be childless.

During the next five years, Luce blossomed as a successful Broadway playwright, with hit plays such as 'The Women', which was later adapted for the screen and is still occasionally seen on television. After World War II began, she traveled to Europe as a journalist for Life magazine reporting her observations (later republished in her book "Europe in the Spring") of Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and England in the midst of the German offensive.

In 1941, Luce and her husband toured China and reported for Life magazine on the status of the war with Japan. When the United States entered World War II, Luce toured Africa, India, China, and Burma, interviewing such key figures as General Alexander, Jawaharlal Nehru, Chiang Kai-Shek, and General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell.

In 1942 Luce was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives on a campaign platform that claimed President Roosevelt had brought the United States into World War II unprepared. Upon her reelection to a second House term in 1944, she began warning against the growing threat of International Communism, and was instrumental in the creation of the Atomic Energy Commission. Also in 1944 tragedy struck when Luce's 19-year-old daughter Ann was killed in an automobile accident. Devastated, she suffered a nervous breakdown, and after undergoing psychotherapy, she sought solace in religion, ultimately embracing the Roman Catholic faith.

In 1947, after Luce's House term expired, she returned to writing, much of it religious in tone. In 1952 she also returned to politics, campaigning for Dwight Eisenhower, who would reward her support with an appointment as ambassador to Italy.

In 1956 Luce fell seriously ill with arsenic poisoning and was forced to resign. In 1967, Henry Luce died from a sudden heart attack, prompting Luce to retire to live quietly in Honolulu, Hawaii. In 1981, however, newly inaugurated President Reagan appointed her to the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, whereupon she returned to Washington, D.C. and took up residence in the Watergate complex. She served on the board until 1983 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her service. In 1987 Luce died in her Watergate apartment.