Karen Tumulty
The Bookplate is continuing their 2024 season of author lectures on July 31st with husband and wife authors and journalists, Karen Tumulty and Paul Richter. They will be discussing her biography of Nancy Reagan, his book about American ambassadors in the Middle East, and our current political climate during a 6pm Wednesday event at The Kitchen and Pub at The Imperial in Chestertown.
The made-in-Hollywood marriage of Ronald and Nancy Reagan is more than a love story—it’s the partnership that made him president. Of the pair, Nancy was the one with the sharper instincts about people, the superior radar for trouble, and the keen sense of how to secure his place in history. The only person in the world to whom Ronald Reagan felt truly close, Nancy understood how to foster his strengths and compensate for his weaknesses. Neither timid nor apologetic about wielding her power, Nancy Reagan made herself a place in history.
But that confidence took years to develop. Nancy’s traumatic early childhood instilled in her a lifelong anxiety and a craving for security. Born into a broken marriage, she spent seven years yearning for the absent mother who abandoned her to pursue an acting career. When she met Ronnie, who had a difficult upbringing of his own, the two fractured halves became whole. And as Ronnie turned from acting to politics, she did too, helping build the scaffolding of his rise and cultivating the wealthy and powerful figures who would help pave his way. Not only was Nancy crucial in shaping Ronald’s White House team and in softening her husband’s rhetoric, she became an unseen force pushing her husband toward what she saw as his grandest purpose—to shake his image as a warmonger and leave behind a more peaceful world.
This book explores the multifaceted character of Nancy Reagan and reveals new details surrounding the tumultuous presidency. The Washington Post columnist Karen Tumulty spent four years interviewing the people who knew this couple best and draws on overlooked archives, letters, memoirs, and White House records, compiling the most extensive biography of Nancy Reagan yet. From the AIDS epidemic to tensions with the Soviets and the war on drugs, this book shows how Nancy Reagan became one of the most influential First Ladies of the century.
“In this riveting, beautifully written portrait, Nancy Reagan assumes her rightful place as her husband’s most powerful and influential advisor. A masterful storyteller, Tumulty captures our interest and our emotions from beginning to end. This work will remain the gold standard of books on First Ladies for generations to come.” — Doris Kearns Goodwin
“[Tumulty] doesn’t make excuses for her subject, and her clarity about Nancy (as she calls her throughout; her husband is “Ronnie”) gives substance to an engaging, well-written narrative. Tumulty’s Nancy is humanly comprehensible and compelling, and comes out looking better than do many of her worst critics and her husband’s strongest allies—two categories that often overlapped.” — New Yorker
“A thorough, compelling biography that underscores what was always hidden in plain sight. Her Nancy is a driven, savvy, indomitable operative, a dogged domestic diplomat on behalf of her affable yet oddly remote ideologue of a husband.” —USA Today
Karen Tumulty is an associate editor and columnist for The Washington Post. In her previous role as a national political correspondent for the newspaper, she received the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting. She joined The Post in 2010 from Time Magazine, where she had held the same title. During her more than 15 years at Time, Tumulty wrote or co-wrote more than three dozen cover stories. She also held positions with Time as congressional correspondent and White House correspondent. Before joining Time in 1994, Tumulty spent 14 years at the Los Angeles Times, where she covered a wide variety of beats. During her time there,
she reported on Congress, business, energy and economics from Los Angeles, New York and D.C. Tumulty is a native of San Antonio, where she began her career at the now-defunct San Antonio Light. Tumulty holds a bachelor of journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Paul Richter has written about foreign policy and national security for the past three decades. As a Washington-based reporter for the Los Angeles Times, he traveled to sixty countries and has appeared in U.S. and international media. He is principal author of California and the American Tax Revolt, University of California Press, 1983. His latest work, The Ambassadors, was used as a reference for the cast of the popular Netflix series, The Diplomat. Karen and Paul live in the Washington, D.C. area.
For more event details, contact The Bookplate at 410-778-4167 or [email protected]. These events are free and open to the public. The Kitchen at the Imperial is located at 208 High Street in Chestertown, Maryland. The Bookplate will continue their event series with local author Alix Rickloff on Wednesday, August 7th at The Kitchen and Pub at The Imperial.
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