On 16 February 1946 – 80 years ago today – Clare Boothe Luce was received into the Catholic Church. At 42, she had already been an actress, editor, playwright and congresswoman, and was married to America’s most prominent publishing tycoon, Henry Luce. Her conversion was front-page news.
Her friend Gore Vidal – no mean critic – described her as “a Dresden doll, only unbreakable”. He thought she could have been president. As the New York Times put it in their obituary: “She had enough careers to satisfy the ambitions of several women, but none tied her down for long.” Such a life should attract (but often does not) a gifted biographer, and Mrs Luce was fortunate in authorising Sylvia Jukes Morris to do so. The result was an astonishing 1,300 pages over two volumes – Rage for Fame (1997) and Price of Fame (2014) – meticulous, clear-eyed, affectionate yet not uncritical.
