"Brilliant, charming, beautiful and witty." So said author Sylvia Morris when she described Ann Clare Boothe Brokaw Luce (1903-1987). Ms. Morris is Luce's authorized biographer.
For researchers wanting to see Luce's papers firsthand, a large collection of her manuscripts and memorabilia was acquired by the Library during three main accession periods: 1956, 1987, the year of Luce's death, and 1990. Luce also left a generous bequest to the Library to catalog her huge personal and public archives, consisting of some 900 boxes of materials, not including photographs, film, 141 scrapbooks and annotated books.
Sylvia Morris explained her role regarding Luce's legacy, saying she thought it was time someone got the story correct.
Clare Luce had a humble background, with little formal education. But, according to her biographer, she was a prodigious reader, with an unusually retentive mind, a sharp intellect and a great capacity for hard work. She was, in short, a self-made woman who succeeded in most fields she chose to enter.
The continual prodding of her ambitious mother led her to seek the company of mentors and other well-connected people who could aid her rise to the top. Luce's first aim was to marry a rich husband, a goal she accomplished at the age of 20. George Brokaw was a millionaire man-about-town and more than twice her age. The marriage ended in divorce after six years, albeit with a half-million dollar settlement for Luce.
In 1929 Luce, now 26, took a job at Vanity Fair, and in three years became its managing editor. She also wrote articles under her own name and a pseudonym, Julian Jerome. In 1935 she married publishing magnate Henry Luce. The union lasted until Henry's death in 1967. During those years she had great success. She wrote three Broadway plays, was a war correspondent for Life magazine, a congresswoman (R-Conn., 1943-47), an ambassador and a columnist.
She also was no stranger to reversals of fortune. Her only daughter was killed in a car accident in California in 1944. This tragedy occurred a year after the disastrous opening of one of her plays.
The resilient Clare Luce bounced back, with a triumphant return to Broadway with her comedy "The Women," which opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in December 1936.
The show was a huge international success, and is still enjoyed on the stage today. Written in three days, it focuses on ambition and rivalry among women and is based on conversations overheard in beauty salons, fashion houses and other places where the wealthy women of New York congegrate. Luce took their gossip and vernacular, "set them talking and let it run." From then on, Clare Luce was rarely out of the spotlight.
Nan Thompson Ernst of the Manuscript Division was employed by the Library to work on the Luce Collection. With the assistance of 13 staff members, she directed the project for 18 months, organizing the materials that are now accessible to scholars and researchers.
Among Ms. Ernst's responsibilities was the massive job of processing the materials and drafting a two-volume finding aid. The aid consists of a preface, a note on the collection's provenance, a biographical note, a section on the scope and content of the collection and a description of the series, chronologically and by subject. (When final editing is complete an index will be published).
There is also a listing of the papers of the Boothe and Luce families and a file of professional papers. The list of professional papers is further broken down to include correspondence, secretarial files, literary files, public service files including congressional and ambassadorial papers, speech files and subject files. A small portion of the collection is closed until October 1997 or restricted until December 2013. The collection occupies 312 linear feet of shelf space and consists of 460,000 items.
Ms. Ernst referred to Clare Luce as "a woman in a man's world, but someone who was up to the task of competing -- whatever the opposition or job at hand. Here was someone who had a lot of fun while working hard; sharp-tongued and difficult, but extremely intelligent, glamorous -- even an enchantress. She did get caught up in all the tinsel trappings of celebrity, yet still remained a person much admired for her intellect and substance."
Added David Wigdor, assistant chief of the Manuscript Division, "Perhaps most Clare Boothe Luce researchers will be interested in only fragments of her varied involvements, for few will explore the wide scope of her life. The items included in her materials related to the individual subjects of politics, theater, journalism, Republican Party activities or Catholicism deserve closer inspection, for a hundred stories can be written about her from firsthand sources.
"Regarding this particular collection," he continued, "the most interesting development for me was to see how a researcher like Sylvia Morris could be of invaluable help to the Library. Because of her intimate association with Mrs. Luce and her closest friends, Ms. Morris was able to reassure the Luce executors and other concerned associates that the Library would be a responsible custodian of the Luce legacy. She helped develop the collection even further by prevailing upon the subject and her wide circle of contacts to offer as much as possible to make the record complete. Through Sylvia's intercession and care the Library was extremely fortunate."
Ms. Morris remembered going to London with Clare Luce for a 50th anniversary production of "The Women" at the Old Vic Theatre. Then 83, Luce had less than a year to live. The revival brought her a taste of the success she had enjoyed half a century before.
According to Ms. Morris, Clare Boothe Luce was a woman of many talents, with a great capacity for happiness. She was also curious and restless, never complacent. In many respects she was a woman of her time; in others, ahead of it.
