United States, North America, Women, White House 

For the first time three presidents talk publicly about their wives. Marianne Means visited Harry S. Truman at Independence, Dwight D. Eisenhower at Gettysburg, and President John F. Kennedy at Palm Beach for interviews granted expressly for this book.

"The Woman in the White House" presents twelve fascinating profiles of Presidents' wives who widely varying ways made, or are making, vital contributions to their husbands' careers before and during their years as Chief Executive. This gallery of personalities includes:

Martha Washington
Abigail Adams
Dolley Madison
Sarah Polk
Mary Lincoln
Helen Taft
Edith Wilson
Florence Harding
Eleanor Roosevelt
Bess Truman
Mamie Eisenhower
Jacqueline Kennedy

Reflected in these biographical chapters is one facet of the lives of the Presidents which has long been neglected - the role of the First Lady, as the title became after 1877. Sometimes her influence and responsibilities gained awesome proportions: the fact that William Taft and Warren Harding sought the presidency at all was due in large measure to the forceful persuasion of their wives; during Woodrow Wilson's last year in the White House, when he was seriously ill with a partially paralytic stroke, his wife Edith completely dictated his business schedule and transferred all messages to and from the President.

These candid accounts of the lives of twelve distinguished American women provide fresh insights into the distaff side of White House activities: the social customs, the ambitions held for their husbands, their likes and dislikes toward members of the administrations, their political consciousness (or lack of it), and many more aspects of the lives and times of these First Ladies.