An engaging read about the complex and fascinating Edith Wilson: the first lady who, due to tragedy, acted as unofficial president while her husband was dealing with the effects of his stroke. I recommend this to readers who like narrative nonfiction, or readers who are wanting to start reading more nonfiction. ( )

A competent if unspectacular biography of Edith Wilson, second wife of the American president Woodrow Wilson. She is likely best known today as the woman who helped to cover up the true severity of the stroke her husband suffered in 1919, and filtered access to him for several months. Rebecca Boggs Roberts makes good use of Wilson's memoirs as a source, mining them both for what they tell us about Wilson's personality and for what her massaging/omission of certain events means. I can't say I warmed to her very much—independent-minded, yes, but she was a racist and an anti-suffragist—but I think Boggs Roberts creates an even-handed portrait of her.

But I didn't find the argument—admittedly made more forcefully in the marketing materials than in the book itself—that Wilson was the "first woman president" of the U.S. or an "unelected president" to be compelling. It's both hyperbolic and fairly unsophisticated in how it frames soft/behind the scenes power. I found myself wishing that Boggs Roberts was more familiar with work on medieval/early modern queenship; I think it would have strengthened her analysis of Wilson's roles. ( )

This is a very fair and even-handed biography of controversial first lady Edith Wilson. When her husband became incapacitated by a stroke during his presidency, Edith took charge and controlled access to her husband, something which would be impossible today. For months she controlled who saw him and what papers he had access to.

What I liked about this book is that the author didn't shy away from Edith's faults. No. They are here. Up close and personal. I came away from the book with a better understanding of someone I had only known through the lens of what I had been told, that she was basically the first woman US president. What we have here is something much more complex. Edith wasn't in it for power or fame. She was there to protect the man she loved.

Very highly recommended. ( )