Lendle

NEW BOOK PROFILES EVERY FIRST LADY
FROM MARTHA TO MICHELLE

Meet Michelle Obama and all her predecessors in the first book that profiles every woman who has served as our nation’s First Lady. In America’s First Ladies: Power Players from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama, Rae Lindsay reports behind-the-scenes details about the lives of these forty-plus un-elected, unpaid women who filled what many call “the world’s hardest job.” They range from the famous to the obscure, from the beloved to the unpopular, from the well-educated to those who could barely read.
Some were elegant and gregarious entertainers; others endured grief and pain in private. Many served as their husbands’ eyes, ears and voices. Some bloomed, while others wilted under the light of public scrutiny. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Any woman who goes into public life has to have a hide like a rhinoceros.”
When Michelle Obama took on the First Lady role she set some major precedents: not only is she the first black First Lady, but in addition, her great-great-grandfather was a slave. She has vowed to be “Mom-in-Chief” to her pre-teen daughters (the youngest children to live in the White House since Amy Carter), but her education and career experience will lead her to take on significant national projects as well. Barack Obama calls her his “rock,” and, in this role, she most certainly will act as her husband’s influential “eyes and ears.”
In America’s’ First Ladies, Rae Lindsay relates the major roles played by our Presidents’ wives or surrogates, as well as the “First Lady” foibles that impacted on presidential families and, sometimes, our country. Some First Ladies taught their husbands to read (Eliza Johnson and Abigail Fillmore); some believed in astrologers (Nancy Reagan, Betty Ford), some sat in cabinet meetings (Rosalyn Carter, Sarah Polk), and some were shopaholics (Jacqueline Kennedy and Mary Lincoln).
Lindsay tells you about parties and problems, weddings and funerals…cows on the White House lawn and rats in the White House walls…and about the women who cared deeply about what was happening in their country, as well as those who couldn’t care less. Was Edith Wilson trying to take over the reins of power, or was she just trying to maintain her husband’s position as President? Was Frances Cleveland simply a great entertainer or should she be recognized as a woman who helped hide her husband’s horrific cancer of the jaw from the public? Would Mary Lincoln have had a stronger place in American history if she had been treated for her apparent bi-polar disorder?
And what about the peaks and valleys in public opinion? As reported in America’s First Ladies, Americans loved Jackie but thought her frivolous until JFK was assassinated. Nancy Reagan went up and down in the public’s view until her Ronnie was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Everyone always loved Mamie and the outspoken Bess Truman. Few loved Mary Lincoln or Florence Harding or the elitist Eliza Monroe. Eleanor Roosevelt was “everybody’s aunt,” and millions adored her, while just as many deplored her. Hillary Cllinton, writes Lindsay, is like spinach or liver: ”you either hate it or love it.” In the last chapter, Lindsay takes a prescient look at “what if…the first lady is a MAN”…what would we call him? what would his role be?
Lindsay has written two earlier books about the women in the White House. In its review of The Presidents’ First Ladies, Booklist wrote, “This charming, anecdotal account relates the arduous tasks, personal details, and historical facts about the presidents’ ladies. …An interesting look at the demanding, un-elected, unpaid, highly visible job and the women who have undertaken it.”
Rae Lindsay has written, ghost-written, or edited 24 non-fiction books including Left is Right: The Survival Guide for Living Lefty in a Right-Handed World, Alone and Surviving: A Guide for Today’s Women.