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Bess Wallace Truman: Harry's White House "Boss." By Sara L. Sale. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2010. 166 pp.
Sara L. Sale's biography of Bess Truman is the latest in the Modern First Ladies series edited by Lewis L. Gould. Surprisingly, this is the first biography from a historian dedicated solely to Bess Truman, and only the second overall, after daughter Margaret Truman's Bess W. Truman (Macmillan, 1986). Using a wide array of secondary sources along with correspondence and oral histories from Truman's staffers and friends, Sale argues that historians have overlooked the importance of this First Lady until recently. Despite Bess's "passion for anonymity," she was "one of the most influential" presidential spouses (p. 103). Sale supports her argument effectively in this concise work that will appeal primarily to the general public but will also interest scholars of Harry Truman's presidency.
Bess Wallace Truman is organized into six chapters. The book opens with a summary of Bess's early life, her courtship with Harry, and their life together from the start of his political career in county politics through his...