Mrs. Ike

Susan Eisenhower - writer, political analyst, public speaker, career woman - here looks back on the life of her grandmother in a tribute that coincides with the centenary of Mamie Eisenhower's birth. In this compelling biography of an army captain's wife who becomes First Lady, she paints the portrait of an independent, headstrong woman who was passionately engaged in a lifelong relationship with a man who was her utter opposite. Although Ms. Eisenhower writes with warm. Appreciation for her grandmother's life, she does not skirt controversy or bypass rumors. Based on a treasure trove of unpublished letters, Mrs. Ike breaks new historical ground and provides, for the first time, a rare insight into the personalities and interrelationship of two complex people. Set against the background of some of the century's greatest events, Mrs Ike is an American love story as well as a chronicle of "a simpler, perhaps nobler time" in American life. A period whose special tone has all but vanished from the contemporary scene. But the human qualities are enduring ones: Susan Eisenhower helps us to see Mamie as Ike did - a heroic and irresistible figure in her own right.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.