Women Come to the Front:: Journalists, Photographers, and Broadcasters During World War II

CLARE BOOTHE LUCE

Talented, wealthy, beautiful, and controversial, Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987) is best remembered as a congresswoman (1942-1946), ambassador, playwright, socialite, and spouse of magazine magnate Henry R. Luce of Time-Life-Fortune. Less familiar is Luce's wartime journalism, which included a book, Europe in the Spring (1940) and many on-location articles for Life.

Though she covered a wide range of World War II battlefronts, Luce considered her war reportage merely "time off" from her true vocation as playwright. Nonetheless, Luce endured the discomforts, frustrations, and dangers encountered by even the most seasoned war correspondent. Besides experiencing bombing raids in Europe and the Far East, she faced house arrest in Trinidad by British Customs when a draft Life article about poor military preparedness in Libya proved too accurate for Allied comfort. Luce's unsettling observations led longtime friend Winston Churchill to revamp Middle Eastern military policy.

Luce's initial encounter with the war in 1940 produced Europe in the Spring, her first non- fiction book. Anxious to convince fellow Americans of the dangers of isolationism, Luce wrote a vivid, anecdotal account of her four-month visit to "a world where men have decided to die together because they are unable to find a way to live together."


Clare Boothe Luce

Luce's Career Launched at Vanity Fair

[Clare Boothe Luce], c. 1935
Clare Boothe Luce Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (98)
LC-USZ62-133415

Poster for Anti-Nazi Film

Margin for Error,
Hollywood: Twentieth Century Fox
Film Corporation, 1943
Prints and Photographs Division (99)
LC-DIG- ppmsca-05803

Poster for 'Margin for Error'

"I Decided To Go to Europe and See About the War"

[image not available online]
Clare Boothe Luce,
Europe in the Spring
,
Alfred A. Knopf, 1940, title page
General Collections (102)


[General Chiang Kai-Shek and Madame Chiang welcome Clare Boothe Luce

Trip to Pacific War Zone

George Rodger,
[General Chiang Kai-Shek and Madame Chiang welcome Clare Boothe Luce
],
April 1942
Clare Boothe Luce Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (104)
LC-USZ62-133411

Luce Interview with General Stilwell

George Rodger,
[General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell arrives at his Maymyo headquarters and speaks with Clare Boothe Luce and Captain Fred Eldridge],
April 7, 1942
Clare Boothe Luce Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (105)
LC-USZ62-133416

General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell arrives at his Maymyo headquarters and speaks with Clare Boothe Luce and Captain Fred Eldridge
Clare Boothe Luce photographing casualties in Maymyo, Burma

"My insides had not stopped quivering. . . ."

George Rodger, [Clare Boothe Luce photographing casualties in Maymyo, Burma], April 8, 1942
Clare Boothe Luce Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (106)
LC-USZ62-133414

Japanese Attack on Maymyo, Burma

Clare Boothe Luce,
[Wounded Burmese],
April 8, 1942
Clare Boothe Luce Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (107)
LC-USZ62-133417

Wounded Burmese
Life article on General MacArthur

Profile of General MacArthur

Clare Boothe,
"MacArthur of the Far East,"
Life
, December 8, 1941,
pp. 122-123
General Collections (108)

Luce with Philippine President Quezon

[Luce with Manuel Quezon and
Admiral Thomas Hart
],
October 1941
Clare Boothe Luce Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (111)
LC-USZ62-133410

Luce with Manuel Quezon and Admiral Thomas Hart

Luce's Burma Article

Luce's Burma Article

Clare Boothe,
"Burma Mission,"
Life
, June 15, 1942,
pp. 94-95
General Collections (112)

World Leaders in Luce's Circle

[Clare Boothe Luce with Jacques Phillipe Leclerc]
c. 1944
Clare Boothe Luce Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (113)
LC-USZ62-133412

Luce with Leclerc and Patton
Luce with Leclerc and Patton

World Leaders in Luce's Circle

[Clare Boothe Luce with George S. Patton, Jr.]
c. 1944
Clare Boothe Luce Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (118)
LC-DIG-ppmsca-05802

Censorship in the Name of Security

[Clare Boothe Luce in Cairo],
June 1942
Clare Boothe Luce Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (115)
LC-USZ62-133413

Clare Boothe Luce in Cairo



Library of Congress Dome Library of Congress
Contact Us ( June 19, 2006 )