I had heard Rebecca Boggs Roberts interviewed about her book Untold Power (#1,155) and decided then I wanted to read it, but I had to wait awhile before a print copy of Edith Bolling Galt Wilson's biography became available. It did not disappoint. You may or may not remember that while Woodrow Wilson was in office, he had a major, debilitating stroke. No one outside of a handful of trusted Wilson confidants actually knew just how serious his condition was as Edith orchestrated every detail of his care and contacts. In essence, she was running the country! Afterwards, newspapers of the time accused Edith of usurping power to become the "Presidentress". For the rest of her life, she denied it.
Ms. Roberts' narrative flows right along, from Edith's impoverished Virginia girlhood (although a descendant of one of Virginia's First Families), to her escape to Washington, D.C. to visit a married sister to her eventual marriage to the older Mr. Galt, owner of a prominent jewelry store. After a taste of travel and the better things in life, Edith was widowed and happy to be on her own. However, well-meaning friends engineered a meeting with the also recently widowed Woodrow Wilson, and the rest, as they say, is history. After Woodrow's death, Edith devoted the rest of her life to polishing his reputation and quashing any negative publicity.
I came away with very ambivalent feelings about Edith Wilson. In many ways, her devotion to her second husband was admirable, yet she did share so many of his views. She was brought up to think of the Civil War as a glorious cause, and that the South would surely rise again. (Woodrow apparently thought the Federal Government stole Robert E. Lee's property to turn it into Arlington National Cemetery and refused to entertain the thought of being buried there!) Racism was thus inevitably part of her upbringing. The Southern version of True Womanhood also influenced her opposition to Women's Suffragism - a woman's role was to stand firmly behind her man, helping him in more subtle ways - a stance she perfected in her own life. Although she was a dutiful wife to Galt, her true devotion was to Woodrow Wilson, as though she was only married to him. In her own memoir, Edith, as Roberts points out, disposes of her first husband in a third of a sentence. This, after twelve years of marriage. Their only son who died as an infant is never mentioned at all!
Yet, when everything around her was falling to pieces at the White House, Edith had it in her to step up to the plate, keep the government running, and not take credit for it. She stage-managed interviews with the President to keep those pesky Republicans from finding out just how ill he really was although they were in the same room with him. That takes colossal nerve and stamina.
She also had a tremendous impact on the future role of the First Lady. First to stand behind her husband at his swearing-in, first to travel abroad with him on a State Visit (a first in itself), first to campaign alongside her husband - the list goes on.
Edith Bolling Galt Wilson really did lead a remarkable life. Her influence lives on today. Read about for yourself in Untold Power.
