Clare Boothe Luce
Clare Boothe Luce (originally: Clare Boothe Brokaw ) (born March 10, 1903 in New York , † October 9, 1987 in Washington, DC ) was an American diplomat , writer , publisher and politician .
biography
The daughter of a musician was inspired by a role in a play she played in 1914 to become a writer , which she began to write after divorcing her first husband because of the severance pay she was awarded.
She also worked as an editor for the magazine "Vogue" . In 1935, Clare Booth Brokaw married the publisher and founder of the magazines “ TIME ” and “ Life ”, Henry Luce .
Her socially critical satire "Die Frauen" , published in 1936, was performed a total of 666 times on Broadway in the 1936/37 theater season and filmed in 1939 under the direction of George Cukor . Then "Kiss the Boys Goodbye" appeared in 1938 and "European Spring" in 1940.
In 1942 she ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives to represent the Republican Party . After the successful election she was from January 3, 1943 to January 3, 1947 a member of the House of Representatives , where she represented the fourth constituency of the state of Connecticut . After her daughter's death in a car accident, she decided not to run again and converted to Catholicism . John Davis Lodge was his successor as MP .
In an interview with the weekly newspaper " The New Statesman " on November 13, 1943, she stated that Indian independence meant that "the USA had won the greatest world war for democracy" . In 1948 she was one of the founding members and boards of the American Committee for a United Europe , a US organization promoting a “free and united Europe”. But it also promoted the formation of blocs in Western Europe with the aim of European integration against the Eastern bloc .
In 1950 she was nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Story for "Come to the Stable" (" ... and heaven laughs too ") .
In 1952 she returned to politics and was involved in women's organizations for the election of Dwight D. Eisenhower as President of the United States . After being elected US ambassador to Italy in 1953, he was the first woman to be the diplomatic representative of the United States to a major European power . During her tenure, which lasted until 1956, she fell ill with arsenic poisoning due to mold growth in wallpaper. At the height of the Cold War , poisoning by enemy secret agents was initially suspected. Her successor in Rome was James David Zellerbach .
On her return to the United States, she was confirmed by the US Senate on April 28, 1959 as US ambassador to Brazil , but three days later she resigned from that office. From then on she devoted herself to painting as well as writing . Most recently she wrote the book "Mayor" with Ed Koch and William Rauch, which was published in 1984 by Simon & Schuster .
The conservative think tank Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute is named after her.
literature
- Chambers Biographical Dictionary . 2002, ISBN 0-550-10051-2 , p. 190.
- Great women in world history . Neuer Kaiser Verlag 1987, p. 75
- Clare Luce , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 46/1987 of November 2, 1987, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
Web links
- Clare Boothe Luce in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
- Clare Boothe Luce in the database of Find a Grave (English)
- Clare Boothe Luce in the nndb (English)
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Luce, Clare Boothe |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Brokaw, Clare Boothe (maiden name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American writer, publisher, politician, and diplomat |
DATE OF BIRTH | March 10, 1903 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City |
DATE OF DEATH | October 9, 1987 |
Place of death | Washington, DC |