Clare Boothe Luce
Clare Boothe Luce (March 10, 1903 – October 9, 1987) was the first American woman appointed to a major ambassadorial post abroad. A versatile author, she is best known for her 1936 hit play The Women, which had an all-female cast. Her writings extended from drama and screen scenarios to fiction, journalism, and war reportage. She was the wife of Henry Luce, publisher of Time, Life, and Fortune. Politically, Luce was a Republican who became steadily more conservative in later life. In her youth, however, she briefly aligned herself with the Democratic liberalism of Franklin D. Roosevelt, as a protege of Bernard Baruch. Although she was a strong supporter of the Anglo-American alliance in World War II, she remained outspokenly critical of the British presence in India. A charismatic and forceful public speaker, especially after her conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1946, she campaigned for every Republican presidential candidate from Wendell Willkie to Ronald Reagan.