Interview with William Elliott Hazelgrove, author of 'Madam President: The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson'
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.
About the Book:
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.
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.
- Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.
Q: Welcome to The Writer's
Life! Now that your book has been
published, we’d love to find out more about the process. Can we begin by having you take us at the
beginning? Where did you come up with
the idea to write your book?
I was reading Scott Bergs
biography Wilson, and was struck by the fact he made a
point of saying that some people thought Woodrow Wilsons second wife Edith
Wilson was the first woman president. So I started to research Wilsons
stroke and I was amazed to find that he was quite nearly incapacitated and the
Vice President never took over. So then I started to research Edith Wilsonand I
found out they were a very unique couple and that Woodrow made her almost an
unofficial co-President. When the blood clot in his brain occurred and the
President was laid up, Edith Wilson took over and ran the country for two years.
Q: How hard was it to write a
book like this and do you have any tips that you could pass on which would make
the journey easier for other writers?
I have written thirteen novels
and so the writing is not hard. But when writing narrative non fiction one has
to research heavily before the writing and that is very different from just
beginning a work of fiction. I fell back on my Masters in History that allowed
me to handle voluminous material and condense it down to the nub. The reader
naturally searches out what is dramatic and that is what gives us character. In
this way non fiction and fiction meet on the same road. The difference of
course is that the events actually happened in non fiction. Using The Papers of Woodrow Wilson helped me
immensely and gave a real insight as to how Edith Wilson governed the White
House. So the research took a while and
then when I sat down to write I had to jump around from source to source which
can impede flow. My advice to any writer who is attempting to write fiction or
narrative non fiction is that remember you are writing for people and you are
writing about people. It is the drama of a life that lends humanity to a story
and that is what we are always looking for.
Q: Who is your publisher and how
did you find them or did you self-publish?
My publisher is Regnery. My agent
submitted my proposal for Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson
and they bought it on three chapters. I then proposed another book on Teddy
Roosevelt and they bought that as well.
Q: Is there anything that
surprised you about getting your first book published?
Well my first book was brought
out by a very small press in Chicago.
The thing that surprised me most was that the world didn’t stop and my life
didn’t change after that first book came out. I realized then it was going to
be a long process and I immediately began my second book, Tobacco Sticks.
Q: What other books (if any) are
you working on and when will they be published?
Forging a President How the Wild West Changed Teddy Roosevelt will
be out in spring 2017 and Gangster and
Nymphs The Fight for Chicago and the 1933 Worlds Fair will be out in fall
of 2017.
Q: What’s one fact about your
book that would surprise people?
I think the one thing that would
surprise people is that when you read about Edith Wilson you realize she ran
the United States
for two years and no one knew it. No one really understood the severity of
WoodrowWilsons stroke and certainly no one suspected a woman was sitting at the
pinnacle of power in America.
Also I think the fact that Wilson
consulted his young wife of only four years on important matters of state and
used her during the war to decipher top secret codes is nothing short of
amazing.
Q: Finally, what message (if any)
are you trying to get across with your book?
I think the message here is that Edith Wilson was a normal person who
found herself in an extraordinary situation. She had only been married to
Woodrow Wilson for four years when he had his stroke and suddenly she was
running the government while trying to keep her husband alive. Edith was basically a self taught person who had a very
difficult life with the early death of her first husband and child and yet she
preservered and married a president and then ran the most powerful country on
earth. Normal people doing amazing things.
Q: Thank you again for this
interview! Do you have any final words?
I think if there is a moment for
a book then Madam President The Secret
Presidency of Edith Wilson is coming out just the right time. We are
looking at the possibility of our first woman president and yet, a hundred
years before, a woman ran the United States.
We could learn a lot from the Presidency of Edith Wilson
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