The President’s Wife

Wood (The Engineer’s Wife) shines a light on the turbulent final months of the Woodrow Wilson administration in this contemplative story of Woodrow’s second wife, Edith. In June 1915, widow Edith Bolling Galt meets widower Woodrow for tea at the White House, their tête-à-tête arranged by Woodrow’s cousin Helen Bones. They marry that December and Edith becomes Woodrow’s confidant, acting as his hostess at the White House and joining him on his voyage to France, where he signs the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. After Woodrow’s debilitating stroke later that year following his cross-country train tour to promote the League of Nations Covenant, Edith encourages him to stay in office, believing that to step down would hasten his demise. While he rests, she steps in to handle various matters of state, such as buying time with a railroad union to hold off a potential strike. Though the prose is a bit cluttered with period details and exposition, Wood strikes on a potent irony in her telling of the Wilson presidency, by imagining the immense power wrought by a first lady in an era where women could neither vote nor hold office. Fans of revisionist historicals with strong female leads should check this out. Agent: Lucy Cleland, Kneerim & Williams. (Aug.)