First Ladies: Women Who Called The White House Home

by Beatrice Gormley

Get a glimpse into the lives and characters of the women who helped to shape a nation.

The term "First Lady" has been used to refer to the wives of the presidents fo the United States since the Civil War Era. But what kind of people were the First Ladies? They were athletic and no-nonsense, like Bess Truman; sophisticated, like Jacqueline Kennedy, and pioneers, like Anna Harrison. They were lawyers, like Hillary Rodham Clinton, school librarians, like Laura Bush, and independent thinkers, like Abigail Adams and Eleanor Roosevelt.

This updated edition includes new information on the most recent first ladies and a brand-new section on Laura Bush.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Born in Glendale, California, Beatrice grew up in Southern California. After graduating from Pomona College, she worked in publishing near San Francisco. There she met and married Robert Gormley, and they moved to Massachusetts. They have two daughters.
Since age 9 Beatrice had wanted to become a writer. But it wasn't until after her children were born that she really focused on her writing. In 1981 her first book, Mail Order Wings,was published. Since then she's written many popular novels and biographies for young people. Her most recent books are Second Lives, a novel of humans and other animals, and the biography Joe Biden: Our 46th President.

Reviews

[Laura Talley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Huzzah! This book about First Ladys’ needed to be written! There should be an updated one since this one ends with Laura Bush. Finding out about the wives of presidents, their struggles and losses and wins and works. You learn more about the men through the stories of their wives! Ty for writing this book!

[*Weebles* · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome! Very informative!

[Dionne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice set of short biographies on the first ladies.

[Mary L · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book and learning about the lives of these important women in America's history.

[Shelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book that briefly describes the women who helped shape our nation with their charm and influence. Each First Lady was unique and brought a different something to the White House; some taking a quieter role while others were extremely outspoken. My daughter and I have read about each one as we cover their more famous spouses. Several of these ladies brought about a touching softness that may have otherwise been lacking in their men.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it, did you know that almost everyone of the President's wifes had a one kid died under the age of ten. I think only one president wasn't married.

[Rose]

920 Gor

[Katharine Ott · Rating 4 out of 5]

"First Ladies: The Women Who Called The White House Home" - written by Beatrice Gormley and published in 1997 by Scholastic. Interesting!