The First Page: Madam President: The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson by William Hazelgrove

Title: Madam President: The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson
Author: William Hazelgrove
Publisher: Regnery
Pages: 352
Genre: Narrative Nonfiction

After President Woodrow Wilson suffered a paralyzing stroke in the fall of 1919, his wife, First Lady Edith Wilson, began to handle the day-to-day responsibilities of the Executive Office. Mrs. Wilson had had little formal education and had only been married to President Wilson for four years; yet, in the tenuous peace following the end of World War I, Mrs. Wilson dedicated herself to managing the office of the President, reading all correspondence intended for her bedridden husband. Though her Oval Office authority was acknowledged in Washington, D.C. circles at the time--one senator called her "the Presidentress who had fulfilled the dream of suffragettes by changing her title from First Lady to Acting First Man"--her legacy as "First Woman President" is now largely forgotten.

William Hazelgrove's Madam President is a vivid, engaging portrait of the woman who became the acting President of the United States in 1919, months before women officially won the right to vote. Movie Rights Optioned by Storyline Entertainment.

For More Information

Madam President: The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson is available at Amazon. 
Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.

The First Page:

A Bad Day

                         

                           1919

“Edith, can you come to me? I am very sick.”

A woman stood in the darkness with the desert wind blowing in

the open windows. The train car shifted from side to side as she

grabbed the handle to the president’s bedroom. Somewhere outside

of Pueblo, Colorado, in the stifling heat of September 14, 1919, Edith

Bolling Wilson opened the door from her train compartment and

found the twenty-eighth president of the United States with his forehead

against a chair at 11:30 in the evening. Pressing against the

cranial thump of blood gave some relief to President Wilson, but

things were quickly deteriorating.

   The steel presidential car, The Mayflower, was stifling hot as

Wilson moaned and inhaled the scent of smoke from forest fires they

had passed through earlier. The president had few remedies for the

excruciating headaches of hypertension, a result, perhaps, of years of

campaigning for the League of Nations, which had left him physically

exhausted.  

About the Author

William Elliott Hazelgrove is the best-selling author of thirteen novels, Ripples, Tobacco Sticks, Mica Highways, Rocket Man, The Pitcher, Real Santa, Jackpine and The Pitcher 2. His books have received starred reviews in Publisher Weekly and Booklist, Book of the Month Selections, Junior Library Guild Selections, ALA Editors Choice Awards and optioned for the movies. He was the Ernest Hemingway Writer in Residence where he wrote in the attic of Ernest Hemingway's birthplace. He has written articles and reviews for USA Today and other publications. He has been the subject of interviews in NPR's All Things Considered along with features in The New York Times, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, Richmond Times Dispatch, USA Today, People, Channel 11, NBC, WBEZ, WGN. The Pitcher is a Junior Library Guild Selection and was chosen Book of the Year by Books and Authors. net. His next book Jackpine will be out Spring 2014 with Koehler Books. A follow up novel Real Santa will be out fall of 2014. Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson will be out Fall 2016. Storyline optioned the movie rights. Forging a President How the West Created Teddy Roosevelt will be out May 2017.

He runs a political cultural blog, The View From Hemingway's Attic.

For More Information

• Visit William Hazelgrove’s website.
• Connect with William on Facebook and Twitter.
• Find out more about William at Goodreads.

                                            

Two