The Shadow of Blooming Grove

"The Shadow of Blooming Grove inspired me to write my biography of Mrs Harding. The book was well written, it captured the 1920s very well, it depicted the mid-western milieu that Harding came from. But Florence Harding was no more than a caricature. At one point, Russell describes her as like a dried autumn leaf, brittle and devoid of chlorophyll. It’s a great read but really sexist. Florence Harding is a woman whose influence was acknowledged but who had always been derided. There was even a rumour that she poisoned the president in retribution for his chronic adultery. All of that ugliness was in The Shadow of Blooming Grove . I found it unfair, so I thought Florence Harding was a person whose story I really wanted to tell. She was an exemplar of that time, despite the fact that she was 60 when she came to the White House. She had pince-nez glasses, tightly marcel-waved grey hair, and wore drop-waisted dresses. Her spirit and even her clothing was something new in America. She had worked tirelessly to make Warren the political success he improbably became. She was a tactician and speechwriter. She knew the art of politics, even the backroom negotiating. Florence had been the business manager of her husband’s newspaper. She knew the press and how it worked. She was expert at manipulating her own image and as a consequence she was very popular in her time. She created her own persona—she invited along news cameras to capture her flying in an airplane, entertaining Hollywood stars and hosting jazz bands at the White House. She was also the first first lady who saw herself, despite being unelected and unsalaried, as responsible to the American people. She was a full partner with Warren in all that he did. It builds on the lack of work done by Francis Russell. Florence Harding is a caricature, at best, in Russell’s book. I endeavoured to show her true, full story."