Edith and Woodrow: The Wilson White House

by Phyllis Lee Levin

Book Overview

It's hard to say who comes off worse here: President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), depicted as arrogant, egotistical, and so poor at negotiation or compromise it's a wonder he ever got involved in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743211588
• ISBN13: 9780743211581
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 608 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.2" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

Our First Woman President

At last, a book that tells the truth about Edith Wilson, the President's second wife. All the drama is here: the cover-up by the wife Edith Wilson, the personal physician Dr. Cary Travers Grayson, who was promoted over hundreds of other more qualified Naval officers to Admiral, and the faithful and loyal personal secretary, Joseph Tumulty who was, in the end, excluded by the petulant and protective Edith. Because of newly released medical records thought lost, the truth is out about the physically and emotionally impaired Woodrow Wilson. We can now dismiss claims to the contrary, made by the late Arthur S. Link's in his work as editor of "The Papers of Woodrow Wilson." Phyllis Levin gives us an accurate view of a man who not only had an affair with Mary Peck, but also of a second woman, the wife of a colleague at Princeton University, when he first taught there and was married to his first wife Ellen. New evidence, not covered in her book, is now available that Wilson was blackmailed by that colleague's wife, who divorced her Princeton professor husband, and was living in Washington, D.C., when Wilson was president. With accurate diagnosis by Dr. Bert E. Park, and other doctors of the medical records now available, we now know the true condition of Wilson's health long before he entered the White House. We also now know that several doctors were sent from the United States to France when he had a major stroke there while attending the Paris Peace Conference. The central thesis of the book centers on the cover-up by Dr. Grayson, Edith, and Tumulty (to a lesser extent). Little did the public, press, Congress, and Vice-President Marshall realize that Wilson was paralyzed and unable to discharge the duties of his office. Misleading and outright lies in the bulletins from Dr. Grayson and hand-written notes by Edith on White House stationary (which begin "The President says..."), which serve as Wilson's "supposed" answers to important questions sent from cabinet officials, are now exposed in this tome. New evidence, since this book was published, now confirms what is in this book as fact: Edith Wilson was behind the breakup of the friendship and relationship between Colonel House and Woodrow Wilson, as well as the friendship between Wilson and his private secretary Tumulty. She saw Secretary of State Lansing as a threat to her on-going cover-up of Wilson's medical condition, and engineered his dismissal. He was getting to close to the truth; Edith had a talent for fiction. Tumulty, who is typically always presented as "loyal to the end," was continually treated shabbily by Edith Wilson and finally barred from seeing the President whom he admired and served. Wilson was a vindictive man; he was a racist (another aspect that Arthur Link never covered; one of Wilson's statements appears in the silent film "The Clansman"); he felt personally betrayed by anyone who did not agree with his position(s); he was self-serving and ultimately, transpar

Expands greatly on those inimations that Edith Wilson was

indeed acting as Wilson proxy after his massive stroke in 0ctober 1919. One thing above all Ms. Levin wants to make clear. After his stroke, Wilson was never again competent to be president. The deception that ensued is the real point of the book. Ms. Levin hates Edith Wilson. Mostly for the memoirs she wrote sometime after Wilson's death. It is false, selfserving re- visionist history, that became wildly popular and regularly accepted as the definitive work from of the Wilson presidency. It was later made into a major motion picture with Edith approving ever word of the script. Ms Levin seeks to destroy that work quoting from it often & then blowing it apart. It seems credible that Edith was the defacto president for the last 16 months of his administration. If Woodrow Wilson was not a dirty old man he certainly needed a woman at all times: for sex , unquestioning obedience & loyalty to him. He got that essentially from three woman: his adoring & adored first wife, Ellen who died rather suddenly early in his administration, his mistress Mary Peck, who he visited regulary in Bermuda before he married Edith. Soon after they met, Edith & he were joined at the hip, figuratively & literally. She was able with much sucess to isolate Woodrow from those he relied on most notably Col. Edward House, as they took him away from time spent with her. Their personalities did not complement each other as they were the same. They were petty, stubborn, dogmatic paranoid & uncompromising in their principals. So much were they alike that actions taken by Edith in secret could very well have come from the president... up to a point. The cornerstone of Wilson's presidency, the one thing that would have made him perhaps the greatest president of all time was the U.S. entry into his own creation: The League of Nations. As written the U.S. Senate would not, did not ratify the treaty. A few revisions, a word here & there would have won the day. Wilson thru his wife did not budge. She did not have that in her. Perhaps if the president had been lobbied his sense of what was about to be lost would have prevailed. But we will never know. Plus Wilson hated Senator Lodge & Edith did not have enough character to bring these two men together. The comfort & protection of one man by one women changed the history of a nation & the world. One mistake in the book. In the photo section is a picture of The Wilsons posing with royal family at Buckingham Palace, December 28, 1919. Not likely since Wison was quite incapacitated at that time. Page 395 indicates that on December 20, 1919, Wilson was wheeled out of the White House for an "airing". Nor could he have been in Paris on December 14, 1919, as another photo indicated.

A Page-Turner!

Phyllis Lee Levin bases her book on solid historical research and yet keeps suspense alive. She combines fact and fabric of a fascinating historical period with astute psychological portraiture.Resisting the temptaion to demonize Edith, she keeps the reader's attention and fascination by bringing complexity and, oddly empathy, out of what a lesser author would have turned to a simplistic story. A triumph and a treat!

An Outstanding Accomplishment

"Edith and Woodrow: The Wilson White House" is an enthralling history of the Wilson years in American public life. Researched with exacting detail, Ms. Levin breathes life into the figures of this era. In the tradition of David McCullough, Ms. Levin is a magnificent writer, making this gripping work of history eminently readable for all.

One of America's Best Books

Not only is it spectacularly written, but this book is an absolute esstential for those who thrive on presidential history, American history, politics, power, marriage and emotion. WHat balances it all is the most painstaking sort of detail that has been necessary for some 80 years. It tells the truth and it gives the facts to back it up. The irony is that Edith Wilson should now rank as the worst First Lady in history: selfish, narrow-minded, ignorant, greedy, bigoted...with phenomenal street smarts and intuition. The narrative flows like gold - even for those who "hate" history it is a marvelous journey.