Clare Boothe Luce Biography (politician, dramatist, and socialite) (1903 - 1987)

Ann Clare Boothe politician, dramatist, and socialite:(born March 10, 1903, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Oct. 9, 1987, Washington, D.C.) U.S. politician, dramatist, and socialite. She was born into poverty to parents who never married. From 1930 to 1934 she worked as an editor at Vogue and Vanity Fair. In the latter she published short sketches satirizing New York society, some of which were collected as Stuffed Shirts (1931). In 1935 she married Henry R. Luce, the publisher of Time and later Life magazine. Three of her witty plays were adapted into films: The Women (1936), Kiss the Boys Goodbye (1938), and Margin for Error (1939). From 1939 to 1940 she worked as a war correspondent for Life and recounted her experiences in Europe in the Spring (1940). As a member of the House of Representatives (1943–47), she became influential in Republican Party politics. She served as ambassador to Italy from 1953 to 1956, was a public supporter of Barry Goldwater in the 1960s, and served on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan in the 1970s and '80s. In 1983 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She is remembered for her fiesty demeanour and her acid wit, which she displayed in oft-quoted aphorisms such as, “No good deed goes unpunished.”