Complete Story
12/05/2023
FLARE Program ... Edith Wilson: Overnight Sensation
Edith Wilson: Overnight Sensation
FLARE Program December 11, 2023
7 pm EST
Rebecca Roberts with Heath Lee
"Roberts isn’t interested in venerating Wilson as a saint; nor is she looking to magnify the First Lady’s flaws. Rather, she lets Edith be Edith, which is to say messy and complicated, as most humans are."
—Review of Rebecca Roberts biography Edith Wilson, Untold Power: The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson in The Washingtonian
While this nation has yet to elect its first woman president—and though history has downplayed her role—just over a century ago a woman became the nation’s first acting president. In fact, she was born in 1872, and her name was Edith Bolling Galt Wilson. Join FLARE on December 11 as author Rebecca Roberts discusses her new biography of this fascinating, complex FLOTUS with First Lady Pat Nixon’s biographer Heath Hardage Lee. The two writers will discuss Edith’s courtship in the spotlight with the widowed President Wilson, Edith’s personal take on the role of First Lady, her anti-suffrage views, and her life both in and out of the White House. What do historians get right about Edith, and what do they get wrong? Roberts will reveal the secrets of Edith’s life both public and private during our conversation. Audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions of Roberts at the end of the talk.
