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PRODUCT
The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington’s Most Private First Lady
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$15.99
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A new, revolutionary look into the brilliant life of Pat Nixon.
In America’s collective consciousness, Pat Nixon has long been perceived as enigmatic. She was voted “Most Admired Woman in the World” in 1972 and made Gallup Poll’s top ten list of most admired women fourteen times. She survived the turmoil of the Watergate scandal with her popularity and dignity intact. The real Pat Nixon, however, bore little resemblance to the woman so often described as elusive, mysterious and “plastic” in the press. Pat married Richard Nixon in June of 1940. As the couple rose to prominence, Pat became Second Lady from 1953-1961 and then First Lady from 1969-1974, forging her own graceful path between the protocols of the strait-laced mid-century and the bra-burning Sixties and Seventies.
Pat was a highly travelled First Lady, visiting eighty-three countries during her tenure. After a devastating earthquake in Peru in 1970, she personally flew in medical supplies and food to hard-hit areas, meeting one-on-one with victims of the tragedy. The First Lady’s 1972 trips with her husband to China and to Russia were critical to the detente that resulted. Back in the US, Pat greatly expanded upon previous preservation efforts in the White House, obtaining more art and antique objects than any other First Lady. In the domestic arena, she was progressive on women’s issues, favoring the Equal Rights Amendment and backing a targeted effort to get more women into high level government jobs. Pat strongly supported nominating a woman for the Supreme Court. She was pro-choice, supporting women’s reproductive rights publicly even before the landmark Roe v. Wade case in 1973.
When asked to define her “signature” First Lady agenda, she defied being put into a box, often saying: “People are my project.” The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon, Heath Hardage Lee presents readers with the essential nature of this First Lady, an empathetic, adventurous, self-made woman who wanted no power or influence, but who connected warmly with both ordinary Americans and people from different cultures she encountered world-wide.
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Categories: Women Writers
Product name:
The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington’s Most Private First Lady
Price:
$15.99
AvidReader 345 –
Like many, I knew next to nothing about Pat Nixon when I picked up Heath Hardage Lee’s book, but I knew that I should know about this important First Lady who was at the center of so many crucial 20th century events. “The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon” pulled me in right on the first page. What challenges Mrs. Nixon faced during her early years and with what vibrancy and strength did she meet them…and how bravely she weathered the many storms of political life! HHL’s skillful and sensitive storytelling, combined with deep and broad research, brings history to life and places the reader at Mrs. Nixon’s side, where to understand her is to admire her greatly. A fascinating and inspirational life story. Thank you, HHL, for introducing this reader to one of my now-favorite women in history.
Joe Butson –
Before I add my humble opinion on the life and times of “The Mysterious Pat Nixon”, as conveyed by the brilliant Heath Hardage Lee, let me say I was very open to learning more about her. Which is more than I can say of the press in DC and New York during Pat’s tenure as Second and First Lady. What biased and superficial hacks they were then. The recent review in the NY Times of this book carries on the tradition of what could have been, should have been, a fair look at a formidable First Lady but instead turned into a sophomoric hatchet job by an academic who not only knows better, but could not wait to burnish her nonsensical subjective questions on how progressive Pat Nixon wasn’t without a shred of evidence, just earnest BS.
I am biased towards the Nixon Administrations, based on the brilliant biography of her husband penned by the estimable Conrad Black. I was also primed for this book based on Ms. Lee’s earlier history of “The League of Wives,” which everyone should read to learn about the casual disregard the Administration before Nixon’s, LBJ’s “Just Society,” and its failure to support and assist the American patriots and MIA captured and tortured by the North Vietnamese, in violation of the Geneva convention.
Readers will learn that Pat Nixon was a self-made modern woman who managed adversity astonishingly well. As a California native, a frontier during her time, Pat faced down adversity with determination and hard work. Caring for ailing parents as a young woman and then her brothers when they were orphaned as teenagers. She earned college degrees (USC) and teaching credentials while holding down multiple jobs. She taught business courses at a high school in Whittier, CA, where eventually she met, resisted and married Richard Nixon.
Heath Hardage Lee chronicles Pat Nixon’s journey through the Depression, marriage, moving across the country a couple of times during the War years. This icludes a stint in San Francisco where she thrived alone as Richard was stationed in the Pacific. The author’s story telling ability shines through all of this history and the development of an interesting, educated and resourceful woman thriving in difficult times unfolds compellingly.
Pat Nixon was a full partner in all of her husband’s political fights as he moves from small town California lawyer to the Congress, then to the Senate and then to Eisenhower’s Vice President. Her tireless work on behalf of the Richard Nixon the candidate and the Republican Party mirrored Republican women throughout the country. This support and hard work formed the base of the party and no doubt they all looked up to Pat Nixon, a stylish, composed American leader. Pat sacrificed time with her daughter’s as she and the future President chartered a political path that was ambitious and, in the end, successful but not without heartbreak.
The country at large noticed Pat Nixon as Second Lady, traveling the globe with her husband the Vice President, admirably representing the American people mid-century at the height of the cold war.
The 1960 Presidential election, long considered pivotal and controversial, is well documented by the author and we learn of Pat’s mistrust of the Kennedy family, well founded in my opinion.
The 1968 through Watergate years well document the inside story of the East Wing vs. the West Wing of the White House during Nixon’s administrations. All the while, the Pat Nixon the country saw, and the world witnessed in solo visits as First lady, particularly in a devastated post earthquake Peru, are without question admirable, compassionate and influential.
I highly recommend readers to the book and the open minded readers will learn, as I did, that you’ll no longer think Pat Nixon is a mystery and you will wonder how she is not accorded the credit she deserved as a paragon of modernity.
somanybookstoread –
As I read The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon, I felt like I was re-living the political history of my own life. The Kennedy-Nixon election was the first presidential election that I remember. During the era prior to around-the-clock cable news, there was much revealed in this book that I was not aware of as it was happening. I was always fascinated by Pat Nixon along with Tricia and Julie during the Nixon presidency. It was very interesting to learn all that Pat accomplished in her own quiet way and what an advocate she was for women’s rights
William de Rham –
“The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon” is an excellent biography of our 37th First Lady. It offers readers the opportunity to get to know Pat Nixon, a strong, courageous, and caring woman deeply committed to her family and to duty to her country. It also imparts a good deal of historical information about the era (1912-1931) through which she lived.
Author Heath Hardage Lee begins with Ms. Nixon’s childhood, teenage, and young adult years, a time made difficult and filled with hard work due to the death of her parents and the Great Depression. While running the family home, she worked numerous jobs to put food on the table and to get herself and her siblings the best education possible. After graduating from USC in 1937, she became a teacher in Whittier, CA, where she met Richard Nixon. The hard work did not stop with their marriage but intensified as RN left to serve in the Navy during WWII, and she became a career woman, employed as an economic analyst for the OPA.
Upon RN’s return from the Pacific and decision to enter politics, Pat became his “campaign partner,” deeply involving herself in his runs for the House (1946, 1948), the Senate (1950), Vice President (1952, 1956), and President (1960, 1968, 1972). She was a tremendous asset to him, and the country, as he served in those offices. This, even though she would never have chosen politics for herself and found it often distasteful, even hurtful. While she may have been very private and preferred to live the “quiet life” of a lawyer’s wife, she committed herself to serving RN’s political career and the nation’s interests. Her courage, her intrepidity, her poise, her humor, and, most of all, her charm—her interest in and warmth towards people—often made a difference in tough political and diplomatic situations.
“The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon” is not a gossipy tell-all. Readers seeking a Kitty Kelly-type expose may be disappointed. As might those seeking a biography filled with “Nixon-bashing.” Author Lee admires Mrs. Nixon and, on balance, seems to think well of RN and the Nixon daughters. Her examination of the Nixons centers more on their family life and how they reacted to events than it does on politics. Ms. Lee’s descriptions of Mr. and Mrs. Nixon’s courtship evoke a more innocent time and she portrays a sweetness and a caring throughout their relationship that some may find surprising.
In addition, Ms. Lee covers a number of historical events, including: The Great Depression, WWII, the Alger Hiss case, the “Checkers speech,” the “Kitchen Debate,” the 1958 attack on the Nixon motorcade in Venezuela, the Nixons’ relationship with the John F. and Jacqueline Kennedy, Nixon’s presidential campaigns, the White House years, the frosty relationship between Mrs. Nixon’s East Wing and Haldeman’s/Ehrlichman’s West Wing, and the post-White House years, just to mention a few. She includes many interesting anecdotes, including my personal favorite: the exchange between Mrs. Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai (a/k/a Chou En-lai) that resulted in the gifting of two pandas to our National Zoo.
My thanks to NetGalley, author Heath Hardage Lee, and publisher St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a complimentary ARC. All of the foregoing is my independent opinion.