First Ladies (79 page)

149
. Robert J. Maddox, “Mrs. Wilson and the Presidency,”
American History Illustrated,
vol. 7 (1973), pp. 36–44.

1
. Frederick Lewis Allen,
Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920
s (New York, 1931). See especially
chapter 5
, “The Revolution in Manners and Morals.” Although the Allen book is now old, its view of the 1920s continues to dominate in general textbooks. For more recent works on how outdated Allen's view of the 1920s has become, particularly in regard to women's history, see J. Stanley Lemons,
The Woman Question
(Urbana, 1973). Important articles on American women in the 1920s include James R. McGovern, “The American Woman's Pre-World War I Freedom in Manners and Morals,”
Journal of American History,
vol. 55 (September 1968), in which changes in women's manners and morals are traced to the first decade of the twentieth century, and Estelle Freedman, “The New Woman: Changing Views of Women in the 1920s,”
Journal of American History,
vol. 61 (September 1974), in which the author provides a historiographical framework for studying women from the 1920s to the 1970s.

2
. William H. Chafe,
The American Woman: Her Changing Social, Economic, and Political Roles
(New York, 1972), p. 50.

3
. Chafe,
American Woman
, p. 30.

4
. Chafe,
American Woman,
p. 58.

5
. Ruby A. Black, “The White House Day,”
Household
(February 1930), p. 12.

6
. Anne O'Hagan, “The Woman We Send to the White House,”
Delineator
(November 1920), p. 7.

7
. Lois W. Banner,
Women in Modern America
(New York, 1974), pp. 160–167.

8
.
Good Housekeeping,
vol. 90 (April 1930), p. 24.

9
. The Harding Memorial in Marion, Ohio, has a large collection of Florence Harding's clothes, and I am grateful to Herbert S. Gary for showing them to me and for sharing his knowledge of the Hardings.

10
. Barbara Sicherman et al., eds.,
Notable American Women: The Modern Period
(Cambridge, 1980), p. 163.

11
. U.S. Census Bureau,
Statistical Abstract
(Washington, D.C., 1931), p. 91. In 1900, eighty-one divorces were granted in the United States for every one thousand marriages. By 1925, this figure had increased to 148 (per one thousand marriages) and to 163 in 1929.

12
.
New York Times,
July 16, 1957, p. 25.

13
. In a campaign biography, Roger W. Babson,
Cox: The Man
(New York, 1920) carefully explains the details of the Cox divorce and assigns blame to neither party. James Cox's parents had separated when he was a teenager; James's first wife, whose maiden name was coincidentally “Harding,” had remarried in 1914 before James reportedly met his second wife. The candidates in the 1920 election must have set something of a record for the number of marital splits that had occurred in their immediate families: Warren Harding's father had been divorced from his second wife, Eudora Adella Kelley Luvisi Harding, in 1916.

14
. O'Hagan, “Woman We Send to the White House,” p. 7.

15
. Edward T. James et al., eds.,
Notable American Women,
3 vols. (Cambridge, 1971), vol. 2, p. 132. Carl Sferrazza Anthony,
Florence Harding: The First Lady, the Jazz Age, and the Death of America's Most Scandalous President
(New York, 1998), xvii, calls the marriage to DeWolfe “a sham. They were never married.”

16
. Samuel Hopkins Adams,
Incredible Era: Life and Times of Warren Gamaliel Harding
(Boston, 1939), p. 19.

17
. Nan Britten,
The President's Daughter
(New York, 1927), and Carrie Phillips's letters. See note 29 below.

18
. Adams,
Incredible Era,
p. 25. See also Andrew Sinclair,
The Available Man: The Life Behind the Masks of Warren G. Harding
(Chicago, 1961), p. 297, for a different interpretation—one that gives less importance to Florence's business acumen.

19
. Britten,
President's Daughter,
page 74
. It is hardly necessary to note that Warren might not have been completely honest in what he told Nan about his wife or his relationship with her.

20
. Francis Russell,
The Shadow of Blooming Grove
(New York, 1968), p. 162.

21
.
Good Housekeeping
(February 1931), p. 18.

22
. Harry M. Daugherty and Thomas Dixon,
The Inside Story of the Harding Tragedy
(New York, 1932), p. 170.

23
. Alice Roosevelt Longworth,
Crowded Hours
(New York, 1933), pp. 324–325.

24
. Evalyn Walsh McLean,
Father Struck It Rich
(Boston, 1936), p. 239.

25
. McLean,
Father Struck It Rich
, p. 251.

26
. McLean,
Father Struck It Rich
, p. vii.

27
. McLean,
Father Struck It Rich
, p, 217.

28
. McLean,
Father Struck It Rich
, p. 220.

29
. See
New York Times,
July 10, 1964, p. 1; “250 Letters from Harding to Ohio Merchant's Wife Found.” The letters between Warren Harding and Carrie Phillips are the property of the Library of Congress and closed to researchers, but one historian, who claimed to have seen them briefly, discussed their contents in
American Heritage
(February 1965), pp. 25–31.

30
. Judith Exner,
My Story
(New York, 1977), esp. pp. 220–221 and 244–245.

31
. Kay Summersby Morgan,
Past Forgetting: My Love Affair with Dwight David Eisenhower
(New York, 1976). Nan Britten's claim of intimacy with Warren Harding has generally been accepted as credible, although some evidence suggests that mumps, which he had as a teenager, had left him sterile and that he could not have been the father of Britten's child. In that case, Florence's failure to have a child by Warren would not have been a matter of her choice or the result of the “tiny white pills.”

32
.
New York Times,
June 13, 1920, p. 7.

33
. Adams,
Incredible Era
, pp. 125–126.

34
. Robert K, Murray,
The Harding Era
(Minneapolis, 1969), p. 64.

35
. McLean,
Father Struck It Rich
, p. 254.

36
. Longworth,
Crowded Hours,
p. 324.

37
. Edith Wilson,
My Memoir
(New York, 1939), p. 318; Beatrice Fairfax,
Ladies Then and Now
(New York, 1944), p. 204.

38
. Ishbel Ross,
Ladies of the Press
(New York, 1936), p. 312.

39
. Murray,
Harding Era
, p, 418.

40
.
New York Times,
June 13, 1920, p. 7.

41
. Murray,
Harding Era
, p. 418.

42
. Russell,
Shadow of Blooming Grove,
p. 399. Although Florence Harding was photographed frequently, pictures of her with her grandchildren are not easily located—if they exist at all.

43
. John D. Hicks, biographical entry for Florence Harding in
Notable American Women,
vol. 2, p. 132.

44
. O'Hagan, “Woman We Send to the White House,” p. 7.

45
. Russell,
Shadow of Blooming Grove
, p. 428.

46
. Photograph in collection at Harding Memorial, Marion, Ohio.

47
. Letter of February 7, 1922, Harding Papers, reel 242, Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, Ohio. Florence Harding's Papers are on reels 242–247, with her letters on 242–243 and clippings about her on the subsequent reels.

48
. Lillian Rogers Parks and Frances Spatz Leighton,
My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House
(New York, 1961), p. 162.

49
. Florence Kling Harding to Mary E. Lee, Letter of January 5, 1922, Harding Papers.

50
. Florence Kling Harding to Evalyn Walsh McLean, Letter of July 28, 1922, Harding Papers.

51
. Sinclair,
Available Man
, pp. 285–286.

52
. An entire book on the subject was later published, detailing how Florence poisoned Warren to save him from the shame that exposure of corruption in his administration would bring. See
The Strange Death of President Harding: From the Diaries of Gaston B. Means as Told to May Dixon Thacker
(New York, 1930).

53
. Adams,
Incredible Era
, p. 8.

54
. Thomas A, Bailey,
The American Pageant,
4th ed. (Lexington, Massachusetts, 1971), p. 806.

55
. “Warren Harding's 4,000 Mile Funeral,”
Literary Digest
, vol. 78 (August 25. 1923).

56
. McLean,
Father Struck It Rich,
p. 274.

57
. Daugherty and Dixon,
Inside Story
, p. 174.

58
.
New York Times
, November 22, 1924, p. 3.

59
. Nicholas Murray Butler,
Across the Busy Years
, 2 vols. (New York, 1939–40), vol. 1, pp. 355–356.

60
.
Good Housekeeping
(February 1932), p. 18.

61
. Grace Coolidge, “The Real Calvin Coolidge,”
Good Housekeeping
(February 1935), p. 181. This is the first of a series of articles (all with the same title) published over several months by Grace Coolidge. The articles include quotations from their friends and Grace's recollections.

62
. Grace Coolidge, “The Real Calvin Coolidge,”
Good Housekeeping
(June 1935), p. 42.

63
. Coolidge,
Good Housekeeping
(February 1935), p. 186. For an interpretation that gives Grace Coolidge more credit, see Robert H. Ferrell,
Grace Coolidge: The People's Lady in Silent Cal's White House
(Lawrence, Kansas, 2009).

64
. Florence Jaffray Harriman,
From Pinafores to Politics
(New York, 1923), p. 347.

65
. Coolidge,
Good Housekeeping
(March 1935), p. 217.

66
. Paul A. Burns, “Profile of First Lady,”
The New Yorker
(May 15, 1926), p. 17.

67
. Anne Hard, “First Lady of the Land,”
Pictorial Review
(September 1926), p. 7.

68
. Ishbel Ross,
Grace Coolidge and Her Era: The Story of a President's Wife
(New York, 1962), p. 264.

69
. Coolidge,
Good Housekeeping
(February 1935), p. 184.

70
. Margaret Bassett,
Profiles and Portraits of American Presidents and Their Wives
(Freeport, 1969), p. 310.

71
. Coolidge,
Good Housekeeping
(March 1935), p. 214.

72
. Coolidge,
Good Housekeeping
(February 1935). p. 184.

73
. Al Fortunato to author, March 7, 1986.

74
. Coolidge,
Good Housekeeping
(March 1935), p. 22.

75
. Coolidge,
Good Housekeeping
(March 1935), p. 22.

76
. Coolidge,
Good Housekeeping
(March 1935), p. 217.

77
. Mary Randolph, “Presidents and First Ladies,”
Ladies' Home Journal
(June 1936), p. 166.

78
. Coolidge,
Good Housekeeping
(April 1935), p. 41.

79
. Anne Hard, “First Lady,”
Pictorial Review
(September 1926), p. 7.

80
. Randolph, “Presidents and First Ladies,” p. 16.

81
. Coolidge,
Good Housekeeping
(March 1935), p. 225.

82
. Irwin Hood Hoover,
Forty-Two Years in the White House
(Boston, 1934), p. 290.

83
. Letter of July 25, 1985 to author from Lawrence E. Wikander, Curator of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Room, Forbes Library, Northampton, Massachusetts.

84
. Ross,
Grace Coolidge
, p. 87.

85
. Amy La Follette Jensen,
The White House and Its Thirty-Three Families
(New York, 1958), p. 227.

86
. Coolidge,
Good Housekeeping
(March 1935), p. 227.

87
. Ross,
Grace Coolidge
, p. 257.

88
.
Outlook
(January 14, 1931), p. 50.

89
.
New York Times
, July 9, 1957, p. 1.

90
. Coolidge,
Good Housekeeping
(March 1935), p. 224.

91
. On different interpretations of the Hoover presidency, see Murray N. Rothbard, “The Hoover Myth,” in James Weinstein and David Eakins, eds.,
For a New America
(New York, 1970).

92
. William A. Williams, review of
The Shattered Dream
by Gene Smith,
The New York Review of Books,
November 5, 1970, p. 7.

93
. William H. Crawford, “Helping Their Husbands to Great Office,”
Ladies' Home Journal
(September 1921), p. 17.

94
. Joan Hoff-Wilson,
Herbert Hoover: Forgotten Progressive
(Boston, 1975), p. 18.

95
. Herbert Hoover, “Memoirs,”
Collier's
(February 24, 1951), p. 22.

96
. This is Herbert Hoover's recollection of his earnings, but Joan Hoff-Wilson,
Herbert Hoover,
p. 14, points out that he frequently exaggerated his success.

97
. Herbert Hoover,
Memoirs,
3 vols. (New York, 1951–1952), vol. 1, p. 36.