Untold Power

A compelling account of a pioneering First Lady.

This is a well-written and compelling biography of Edith Wilson, who was President Woodrow Wilson's second wife, and First Lady of the United States from 1915-1921. When Woodrow suffered a stroke in 1919, Edith did everything she could to hide his condition from the public, and for all intents as purposes, privately performed the duties of the presidency.

Edith Wilson was a complicated and often contradictory person: outwardly presenting herself as "proper"and demure, but also an independent, widowed Washington DC business owner prior to marrying the widower Wilson (who courted Edith with all the puppy dog enthusiasm of a teenage boy). She was not in the market for a second husband, and was more enthralled by Wilson's descriptions of cabinet meetings and foreign policy decisions than she was by his florid and often mushy love letters. Had she lived in a different era, it seems likely that Edith Wilson could have served in public office had she chosen to do so.