The President's Daughter

by Nan Britton, Sam Sloan (Preface)

The President's Daughter is the heart warming story of an innocent young girl who became pregnant and gave birth to a child whose father happened to be the President of the United States. No. This is not a tawdry fable. This is fact. The President was Warren G. Harding who then died suddenly. Some say he was murdered. Her book is great. In Chapter 18 she describes how on July 30, 1917 she finally lost her virginity to the future president after a long courtship, in a New York City hotel on 30th Street overlooking Broadway. Only moments after the intercourse had been completed, the New York City Vice Squad broke down the door. Harding was forced to identify himself. When the police realized that their target, Warren G. Harding, was a United States Senator (he was not yet president), the Vice Squad apologized and beat a hasty retreat. It was not before long that Nan Britton discovered that she was pregnant. Senator Harding set her up in a house in Asbury Park, New Jersey near a casino where he sometimes played poker, and he sent her money through messengers. She was able to keep her pregnancy and the subsequent birth to her of an illegitimate child a secret from everybody, except for her actual lover who was US Senator and then President Warren G. Harding. The child, Elizabeth Ann, was born on October 22, 1919, not in a hospital but in the same house in Asbury Park NJ where Nan Britton had been staying. The resulting book, The President's Daughter, has a story all its own. Bills were introduced in the United States Congress to stop the publication of this book or to make possession of it illegal. The New York City Vice Squad raided the printing plant and confiscated all the plates. No major, reputable book publisher would touch this book. All turned it down. Finally, the book was published. Naturally, as the book featured sex romps in the White House, it became a best seller.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Politics, American History, Biography Memoir

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1927

Reviews

[Annelisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hoo, boy! What a doozy. Where to begin with this...erm...unique volume? For starters, I want to say that from the first time I first heard about the situation, I never doubted the validity of Britton’s account. Purple prose and bad money management aside, her descriptions of Harding match period accounts of his character and later biographies. But the most troubling, and frankly, pitiful, aspect of this situation is that Britton was clearly taken advantage of. In spite of her efforts to spin everything about him into positive character traits, it’s clear from the text that Harding used her intense and inexplicable admiration for him to his own ends, without any real consideration as to how it would affect her, and she struggled greatly. This is not to say that Britton was completely innocent. She knew full well that he was a married man and that their affair was wrong. But her own sense of identity, her goals and aspirations were so closely tied with Harding’s that she was unwilling (or unable) to think for herself. As a result, the readers never really get to know the “real” Nan Britton, what made her tick and her view of herself in the overall scheme of life.
Moreover, her fixation on Harding negatively impacted her ability to form meaningful relationships with other people, and this side effect trickled down to her daughter, Elizabeth Ann. Even when discussing how much she loved her child, Britton’s reasons for this emotion always relate back to Harding in some way: The baby had his eyes, she was a symbol of the life they could have had together, etc. There’s little to no talk about loving the baby for herself individually, or finding her identity as a mother apart from having a child by a senator, and then president. This also means that she let Harding off the hook for never seeing his child in the four years that they both were alive, making up excuses rather than seeing and criticizing his clear lack of interest in the baby.
Throughout the text, there’s also this strange undercurrent of willful ignorance on the part of family members and neighbors about the true nature of their relationship. Everyone and their mother knew that Britton was infatuated with him, yet they laughed it off as if that infatuation wouldn’t be noticed and acted on. Knowing Harding’s reputation as a womanizer, one would think that they’d have been a bit more protective of her, but I suppose not, which is a shame.
Anyway, this is an interesting look at one of the most famous presidential scandals. If one is able to find a copy, I highly recommend that they read it. The book is sure to be a discussion starter about other period issues. I’ll close with this: I cannot understand Harding’s appeal, not in the least bit. Some things and people get better with age; he most certainly did not. But different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am so glad that I read this book - I came across a reference to it in another book, and discovered that the San Francisco Public Library had a copy. Not only a copy, but an original copy from 1927 (although it looks to me as if it was re-covered at one point). Nan Britton had an affair with Warren G. Harding when he was a Senator - he was 30 years older than she was (Harding's younger sister Daisy was Nan's high school English teacher). They had a daughter (Elizabeth Ann) the year before Harding was elected President of the United States. They continued their affair - it's Nan who says they would "make love" in the closet in the ante-room between his public and private offices (I had heard about that, but thought it was just a rumor). Harding sent her money to care for her daughter during his Presidency, but when he died suddenly, Nan lost that source of income. When it became obvious to her that she wouldn't get any more help from Harding's family, nor would they acknowledge Harding's paternity, Nan wrote a book (although it certainly feels as if she had help). Nan self-published the book, or "The Elizabeth Ann Guild" did, to raise money to save benefit all "love children". Fascinating, fascinating read. Nan had destroyed all of Harding's letters to her (at his request) but in the 1960's, it turned out a previous mistress of Harding's, Carrie Phillips, had kept her letters, adding credence to Nan's story (I wonder if there's a book out there about Philips). At any rate, the internet tells me that Harding and Britton descendants have checked DNA (in 2015) and although Nan and Elizabeth Ann did not live long enough to find out, it has been proven that Elizabeth Ann was indeed Warren G. Harding's daughter. Fascinating read, lots of overblown prose and lots of mushy sentimentality, but a fascinating look at a 100 year old political scandal.

[Debi · Rating 1 out of 5]

The worst I've ever read

I think this is the all-time worst book I have ever read. The author rarely focuses on her daughter. The author is totally narcissistic, self-involved, and self-focused. So much drivel about the love she had for President Harding. The entire book is "woe is me." She complains about never having money yet somehow managed to spend well beyond her means. I've never been so disappointed in a book.

[Joanna Osterhout · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compelling

Quite a narrative. But the story desperately needs an afterword to explain the publication details and the aftereffects of its publication , Britain's story leaves the reader wondering ,so how did this affect Msan, her daughter, and Harding's memory.

[Tom Rowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't really know what to say here. Nan Britton was in love with a lecherous dog, albeit one who supported her and their love child. However, President Warren Harding died without leaving any provision for them, thus leaving them in bad economic straits. Ms. Britton tries her best to support her daughter, but the times were not amenable to a single mother. She tried to get money from Harding's siblings, but they were not inclined to support Britton's daughter, so she wrote this book to make some money.

It is a fascinating a look of an affair between an old lech and a naïve young lady. It is sad that Miss Britton felt that Harding was as into her as she was into him. It was also sad to see her struggle to make ends meet. Miss Britton goes to great lengths to justify her affair, but in the end, it was still an affair with a married man. I don't think that I have as generous an opinion of Mr. Harding and the affair as Miss Britton did.

The books is filled with short, easy to read chapters. My only regret is that it does not follow Miss Britton's nor her daughter's life after the publication of the book. I would like to know what impact that had on her life.

I recommend.

[Barbara (Bobby) Title · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the subject interesting and I read the book from beginning to end, but I was not at all interested in every word spoken by everybody in the book. It may have been exactly what Nan had in mind for her diary, but as far as I was concerned, the story itself didn't need every jot and tittle written down.

It just wasn't all that interesting. If It had been titled "The Diary of Nan Britton" I wouldn't have a complaint, but frankly, it was pretty B-O-R-I-N-G.

[Susie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could have been an interesting book. Maybe it was simply the writing style of a non-writer of the age. Not too much about the president's daughter, but a lot of complaining by his lover of many years. Looking forward to reading his biography to learn about her from a different perspective. Still a few presidential biographies away.

[madyn powers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting story- just way too long and I found the author to be unlikable. She spun this story in a way that made Harding a hero when in fact, she was his victim. And her horrible money management skills caused me a great headache. 3/5 ⭐️

[Chris Schaffer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like books about the Harding scandals but I found this book hard to believe. Was interesting until the point when Harding died. Then it was basically unreadable.

[Sheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read-would recommend it to any biography book club

[Susan Molloy · Rating 2 out of 5]

🖍️ If the general events in this book were not proven true, this would be a bad, good, over-the-top, saccharine and sickening comedic dark romance novel. This book proves that what happens out in the open in today’s heathen world happened behind the curtains in the past; that not much is different except the date on the calendar and the players. Warren G. Harding, President of the United States from 1921-23 and Nan Britton, a girl from the same Ohio town as he, played a lot of blanket bingo behind the backs of his wife, his other concubines, and her family. They knew each other because their families knew each other. Oh, and she was 31 years his junior.

Harding and Britton had “relations” in the anteroom of the Oval Office. They did it in rented rooms, in borrowed friends’ apartments, and who knows where else. He liked her to sit on his lap. He was crazy for her. She was crazy for him. They were “meant for each other.” But, oh dear, his ill wife, Florence, was still alive. If she only would di—

Oh, to read this book would lead you to believe that this was THE ultimate love story of the ages!

Pfffft!

The supposed way that Warren G. Harding (1865-1923) spoke (“Gee,” “Dearie,” “Gosh,” and other words that one would not expect a man of a different and much older generation to say) was fall-off-your-chair laughable. This supposed “love” that he had for Nan Britton (1896-1991) was so obviously ensconced in Britton’s clever and immature imagination – the guy was playing her, she ate it all up and asked for lots more for some reason(s) – was it The Electra Complex? A need for being wanted? Attention? Hubris? Gold digging? Or – ?

Britton is a frivolous and jealous girl (I call her a ‘girl’ even though she is in her early 30s when she wrote this book because it is obvious that she had not grown up yet), and don’t you know – no one knows her “sweetheart” Harding as well as she does! Oh, no! – not Florence Harding (his wife), not his family, nor his friends). Oh, no! Harding is Britton’s soul mate and her pretend husband. (Supposedly they made a secret private wedding ceremony between the two of them in the privacy of a rented room when he gave her a ring with a sapphire surrounded by diamonds. This might have been when she was wearing a diaphanous negligée and slippers covered in feathers. I am not kidding.)

Britton believed that Harding was true blue to her. That is very doubtable, since he was and is known as a womanizer through and through. She believed that he did not love his wife, Florence, and any kissing they did was “perfunctory” as he put it. She believed he had platonic friendships with women she knew that he knew. (Yeah. Sure, buddy, is what I say.)

Harding gave Britton jewelry and big money and she spent it on the best, even after the baby was born. They had an elaborate system of sending each other love letters (several envelopes stuffed inside one another). They looked around corners. They looked over their shoulders. They feared anyone finding them out. They led a real sneaky affair.

Oh, but to read Britton’s words – it was God who blessed their union. It was God who gave them their child. God was completely on their side and against all others.

Blasphemous twaddle.

Several men, according to Britton, made passes at her. These were people who knew Harding – I say that those men knew about the affair and decided to get themselves a lick of the whipped cream, too. I am sure that many men knew Britton was doing the bedsheet tango with Harding. News like that gets around; don’t fool yourself. Even his bodyguard knew about their playing post office.

Playing with fire resulted in her getting pregnant and then hiding the kid from nearly everyone (at first, the only people who knew about this illegitimate daughter was Britton’s sister and brother-in-law, who adopted the baby). When Harding died, Britton started telling people that she had the daughter with Harding. It was she who let the cat out of the bag.

What is funny is that Harding always had an excuse not to see his illegitimate daughter, and Britton stupidly accepted those excuses.

When Harding unexpectedly died in office, Britton had the chutzpah to approach his family for lots of money so that she could “raise their daughter” as only a love child of a U.S. President should be raised. Some dough was given to her by Harding’s sister, but that ceased when the family woke up and saw that no one could really prove the kid was his. (Since then, it was proven that the daughter was his through the wonders of DNA testing.)

It got so roll-my-eyes-funny how Britton spoke of Harding as if he was The Ultimate Man who all men should aspire to. Yes, she even said that he was a man among men for just wanting a child of his own. Oh, please! He tried to talk her into an “operation” – an abortion, and even gave her pills to try to induce a spontaneous abortion.

I do not know how much of this dialogue and events in the book are really true – Britton has a lot of that “I don’t recall” terminology throughout, so I believe much of the dialogue, professions of ‘love’, amounts of money, dates, gifts, et cetera might be embellished to suit Britton’s desire for attention.

Britton also has the true reason why Harding died – she stated that "he died of a broken heart" because he could not be free to publicly love and be with Britton and their love child. Never mind what the doctors determined as his cause of death (heart attack/cerebral hemmorage). Oh, no! Britton has the real medical answer to that.

Some time after Harding died, Britton married a Captain Nielsen who turned out to be also playing her. They divorced. (She really could pick ‘em.)

This really is a must-read book for the way it will leave you speechless in its awfulness. It is not a heartwarming book; it is a dark comedy. I really do not believe Nan Britton was all there; she was mentally obsessed with Warren Harding and I will bet she made up a lot of these scenarios.

📕 Published in 1927.

🔵 The illustrated e-book version can be found at Internet Archive.
જ⁀➴🟢The illustrated e-book version can be found on the Project Gutenberg website.

˚✴︎⋆✴︎˚✴︎˚✴︎⋆✴︎˚✴︎
🔲 Excerpts of note:

🔹He was, to me, almost divine. I remember, once, in 1920, the first time he came out to see me at my sister Elizabeth’s (6103 Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago) in June of that year, that we were “talking things over,” I on his lap. My elbow accidentally struck his ribs. “Ouch, dearie!”’ he exclaimed. I apologized and asked if I had hurt him. “No, you just poked me in the ribs!” he laughed. “Ribs!”’ I echoed, “Have you those things?” I shall never forget his low laugh as he hugged me.

🔸According to materia medica, Warren Harding died as the direct result of a cerebral hemorrhage and indirectly from ptomaine poisoning. But I, the mother of his only child, have never for one moment entertained such a thought. I believe that under the burden of fatherhood which he revered but dared not openly confess, combined with the responsibility of the welfare of the nation he loved, the twenty-ninth President of the United States truly laid down his life for his people. He died of a broken heart. And through the voice of the child he loved may there arise a diviner and more lasting memorial to his memory than any reared by human hands,—the answer to the plea from the heart of a mother,—social justice for all little children!

🔹Warren Harding’s empty wallet, given me by his sister, Carrie Votaw, was indeed a symbol, unconscious and voiceless. But to me it spoke eloquently of the universal empty pity, empty sympathy, empty love.

🔸I called him Warren very rarely. He used to tease me to say to him, “Warren, darling, I love you,” and it seemed to delight him to hear me say his name. But I was so much younger than he—exactly thirty years his junior—that somehow it seemed out of tune for me to address him by his first name. I just resorted to endearments, usually calling him “sweetheart.” He called me “Nan” from the first and his letters usually began, ‘Nan darling.” I remember the salutation very often seemed as though it might have been put in after the body of the letter had been written, and when I asked him about it he said that was the case, for he so often wrote his letters to me on memo paper during legislative discussions in the Senate Chamber.

[Pagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth the read If only to discover how loathsome Harding was!

Scandalous! Harding was thirty years older than his teen lover. Together they had a child ,Elizabeth Ann. Senator Harding pushed Nan, a girl he knew since childhood to get an abortion and in fact made the appointment. In the end she refused. Nan had an obsessive love for the dirty old man. While he told her he was fine with her decision and in fact he dearly wanted to be a father, Harding always refused to see his only child! No one in his family knew the secret of the affair with his child lover nor his fathering an out of wed child. Harding always made sure yo protect himself! He admitted to a "fondness" for "young girls." Nan wax love sick and naive. Harding took advantage of that. He demanded all their love letters be destroyed so should Nan no longer be able to keep the affair to herself Nan would have no proof. The affair lessened when he became president, at least in sexual Congress. The love letters continued. He strung her along. Pressed her easily b to believe his marriage to his older wife was more of a convenience than even like. He in fact hoped Mrs Harding would die so he would be free. Nan would allow no negative truths ( other affairs with young girls) to be spoken. She simply believer Harding was in love with her only and had her and Elizabeth Ann's best interests at heart. Such a foolish girl! Harding died while out of State. He died very suddenly. He made no provisions for Nan or their child in his will. I believe he never intended to! She found ( out of court) for many years to get some money to pay for her daughters upkeep and a sum for het own. Nan finally revealed her secret to Warren Harding sister who also knew Nan and family quite well. This sister initially sent small sums cup to the largest 400.00. After speaking with her other sister and her staunch brother Dr. Harding ,Nan happily stood to a savage grilling by Dr Harding. She provided receipts from hotels and business which were signed by Warren. The brother went away basically labeling Nan a whore and her daughter less than.
Nan never took the family who inherited the estate to court or sullied TBE Harding name to TBE papers. She got by with gifts if money and small loans of friends Warren Harding acquainted himself with. People who also knew Nan.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected some clear history and insight into the characters involved. That is not what is served here. The protagonist, President Harding’s “girl on the side” comes across as incredibly naive and and unfeeling. She is led by him and others and simply follows the directions of her adored President.
At last I couldn’t tolerate any more, tried to go back and continue, but there are too many good books to read to waste my time on sawdust.

[Ken K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book as a historical fact. Nan Britton's story has been validated, and Harding's family treated her shamelessly. The book is Nan's attempt to raise money that she felt would have been given her daughter if Warren Harding had lived. A sad story.
This is a book that I own, since I cannot find it in the library.

[Noelle]

quit after about 150 pages.

[Joyce Eggebeen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a fast read, and now, of course, we know that she was indeed "The President's Daughter".

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Bernie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a time capsule of 100 years ago

[Raymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The President's Daughter," is singular among all the books ever put on sale in America. Nan Britton, girl from Marion, Ohio, published her book in 1927, four years after the death of Pres. Warren Harding. Nan dedicated her volume, "with understanding and love to all unwedded mothers, and to their innocent children whose fathers are usually not known to the world." Nan Britton's claim, startling in its time for all the nation, is detailed in Chapter 28 which begins, "The latter part of February, 1919, I knew for a certainly that I was to become the mother of Warren Harding's child…" Is this autobiographical work (and also biographical - the story of Elizabeth Ann) is this book fiction or non-fiction? People who care still debate this question. Is this book the work of Nan Britton or of a ghost writer? Another topic of debate. "The President's Daughter," is immensely interesting, detailed (437 pages) and deserving of much more attention than it now receives.

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warren G Harding had a long-term affair with Nan Britton, a young women from his hometown. She met Harding when she was 14 and he was 30 years her senior. The affair began during his days as a Senator and continued as he was President. From this affair, a daughter was born. This is the true story.

[Jeff Bowen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eye-opening read!

I couldn't put the book down for the first half. However the second half tended to random stories and later the reason why the author decided to publish the book. It's definitely the first "kiss and tell" book.

[Aunttammie Pogue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harding would never make it today...wouldn't be able to hide the mistresses and the illegitimate child. Nan Britton sounds like a very immature and still obsessed woman, which I suppose is why so many didn't believe her story. Interesting read.

[Karen]

NPR podcast episode about the first tell-all books in history and the ramifications:

http://www.wbur.org/npr/640793624/wha...

Warren G. Harding's mistress, and her children and even grandchildren, were scorned and harassed for her book. in 2015, DNA tests proved that Britton's child was in fact Harding's daughter.