Luce, Clare Boothe, 1903-1987

Epithet: American journalist and politician; wife of Henry Robinson Luce

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000705.0x0000d2

Journalist, dramatist, magazine editor, U.S. representative from Connecticut, and U.S. ambassador to Italy. Born Ann Clare Boothe; married George Tuttle Brokaw, 1923; divorced, 1929; married Henry Robinson Luce, 1935.

From the description of Papers of Clare Boothe Luce, 1862-1988 (bulk 1930-1987). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 71132193

Government official; interviewee married Henry R. Luce; interviewee d. 1987.

From the description of Reminiscences of Clare Boothe Luce : oral history, 1968. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122597508

Journalist, dramatist, magazine editor, U.S. representative from Connecticut, and U.S. ambassador to Italy. Born Anne Clare Boothe; married George Tuttle Brokaw, 1923; divorced, 1929; married Henry Robinson Luce, 1935.

From the description of Papers, 1862-1988 (bulk 1930-1987). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 31605217

Anne Clare Boothe was born in New York City, April 10, 1903. Her father was a violinist and businessman and her mother had been a dancer. Clare studied for a short while at the Clare Tree Major's School of the Theatre in New York. During the teens and through the twenties she was very active in the Suffrage movement. In 1923 she married George Tuttle Brokaw, a clothing manufacturer. They divorced in 1929. In 1930 she became Associate editor for Vanity Fair. Between 1934 and 1940, after she resigned from working with Vanity Fair, she wrote plays that were produced on Broadway. Some of her plays were made into movies. During her career as a playwright she met and married Henry R. Luce, the publisher of Time and Fortune. In 1940 she wrote and published a book entitled "Europe in the spring" about her travels in Europe just as the Second World War was breaking out. By 1942 she was fully involved in wartime politics and ran for and was elected as a Representative in Congress for Connecticut's Fourth District. She also wrote the screenplay for a movie focusing on the lives of two nuns, "Come to the stable". This received an Oscar nomination for Best Motion Picture of the year 1949. She was the second woman to be the ambassador to Italy (from 1953 to 1957). She remained in the political sphere the rest of her life. Clare Boothe Luce died in Washington, DC on October 9, 1987.

From the description of The Clare Boothe Luce theatre collection 1891-1919. (Catholic University of America). WorldCat record id: 76878054

Playwright, journalist, editor of Vanity, 1931-1934; Republican congresswoman from Connecticut, 1943-1947; ambassador to Italy, 1953-1957.

From the description of Clare Booth Luce collection, 1955-1966. (Scottsdale Public Library). WorldCat record id: 30443779

Biographical Note

• 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.

From the guide to the Clare Boothe Luce Papers, 1862-1988, (bulk 1930-1987), (Manuscript Division Library of Congress)