Clare Boothe Luce (pronounced like "loose") (April 10, 1903 – October 9, 1987) was an author, a politician, and the wife of a prominent magazine publisher.
Born and raised in New York City, she served as associated editor of Vogue and Vanity Fair before marrying Henry Luce, founder and publisher of Time magazine.
Boothe wrote three successful plays. The Women (1936), a satire of rich New Yorkers, had a Broadway run of over 600 performances. Kiss the Boys Goodbye (1938) was a comedy about the search for an actress to play Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind. Margin for Error (1939) described the murder of a Nazi agent. Among Boothe's non-fiction is the book Europe in the Spring, written to warn Americans against isolationism.
She served as a Republican member of the House of Representatives (1942-1946), representing Fairfield County Connecticut, and was also ambassador to Italy from 1953 to 1956. Her husband introduced her to the hallucinogen LSD in the late 1950s. A conservative icon, she was well known for her anti-Communist views, as well as her advocacy of fiscal conservatism. Ronald Reagan awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983.
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