Rage for Fame: The Ascent of Clare Booth Luce

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK
 
“Her technique was simple: aim for the top,” an envious colleague wrote of Clare Boothe Luce. No American woman of the twentieth century aimed so accurately, or rose so far, as this legendary playwright, politician, and social seductress. Born in New York’s Spanish Harlem, with nothing to recommend her but beauty, ferocious intelligence, and dry wit, she transformed herself into the youthful  managing editor of Vanity Fair. S…