Born: 10 March 1903, United States
Died: 9 October 1987
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Ann Clare Boothe
The following (also here)is republished from the Library of Congress. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
Talented, wealthy, beautiful, and controversial, Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987) is best remembered as a congresswoman (1942-1946), ambassador, playwright, socialite, and spouse of magazine magnate Henry R. Luce of Time-Life-Fortune. Less familiar is Luce’s wartime journalism, which included a book, Europe in the Spring (1940) and many on-location articles for Life.
Though she covered a wide range of World War II battlefronts, Luce considered her war reportage merely “time off” from her true vocation as playwright. Nonetheless, Luce endured the discomforts, frustrations, and dangers encountered by even the most seasoned war correspondent. Besides experiencing bombing raids in Europe and the Far East, she faced house arrest in Trinidad by British Customs when a draft Life article about poor military preparedness in Libya proved too accurate for Allied comfort. Luce’s unsettling observations led longtime friend Winston Churchill to revamp Middle Eastern military policy.
Luce’s initial encounter with the war in 1940 produced Europe in the Spring, her first non- fiction book. Anxious to convince fellow Americans of the dangers of isolationism, Luce wrote a vivid, anecdotal account of her four-month visit to “a world where men have decided to die together because they are unable to find a way to live together.”
1903, Mar. 10 Born Ann Clare Boothe
1912-1913 Understudy to Mary Pickford in A Good Little Devil
1914 Understudy to Joyce Fair in The Dummy
1915 Acted small part in silent short film The Heart of a Waif
1915-1916 Attended Cathedral School of St. Mary’s, Garden City, Long Island, N.Y.
1917-1919 Attended Castle School, Tarrytown, N.Y.
1923, Aug. 10 Married George Tuttle Brokaw (divorced 1929)
1924, Aug. 12 Daughter Ann Clare Brokaw born (died Jan. 11, 1944)
1929 Caption writer, Vogue. Junior editor, Vanity Fair
1930-1932 Associate editor, Vanity Fair
1931 Published Stuffed Shirts. New York: H. Liveright, Inc.
1932-1934 Managing editor, Vanity Fair
1934-1935 “Abide with Me” staged at Beechwood Theater, Scarborough, N.Y; Ritz Theater, New York, N.Y.
1935, Nov. 23 Married Henry Robinson Luce (died 1967)
1936-1938 The Women played 657 performances at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, New York, N.Y.; published New York: Random House, 1937
1938 First of numerous international productions of The Women, including theaters in London, Vienna, Paris; revivals in New York City in 1973 and in 1986 in London, England. Kiss the Boys Goodbye staged in New York, N.Y.; published New York: Random House, 1939; and released as a motion picture, 1941
1939 Release of The Women as a motion picture; remade as a musical film entitled “The Opposite Sex,” 1956. Margin for Error staged in New York, N.Y.; published New York: Random House, 1940; and released as a motion picture, 1943
1940 Published Europe in the Spring. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Campaigned for Republican presidential candidate Wendell L. Willkie
1941-1942 Toured China, Burma, India, Philippines, North Africa, and Europe as war correspondent for Life
magazine
1942-1946 Elected to Congress from the fourth congressional district of Connecticut; member of House
Military Affairs Committee, 1943-1946, and Joint Committee for Control of Atomic Energy, 1945-1946
1944, June 27 First woman keynote speaker, Republican National Convention, Chicago, Ill.
1944-1945 Toured European battlefront with congressional delegation
1946 Converted to Roman Catholicism
1947 Published “The Real Reason,” McCall’s magazine
1948-1986 Syndicated newspaper columnist
1949 Release of motion picture Come to the Stable
1951 Child of the Morning (play) staged in Boston, Mass.
1952 Edited Saints for Now. New York: Sheed and Ward
1953-1956 Ambassador to Italy
1959 Confirmed ambassador to Brazil by Senate; resigned before taking office
1973-1977, 1980-1986 Member, President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
1987, Oct. 9 Died, Washington, D.C.