Her writings extended from drama and screen scenarios to fiction, journalism, and war reportage. As an author, she was best known for her 1936 play, Women, which, three years later, became a motion picture renowned for its all-female cast. She served as a United States representative from 1943–1947 and, from 1953–1956, served as United States Ambassador to Italy. She was active politically, and campaigned for every Republican presidential nominee from Wendell Willkie to Ronald Reagan. She was intelligent, versatile, forceful, charismatic, beautiful, and, to put it mildly, “unprincipled.” She married twice, to millionaires whom she admittedly did not like. The first left her a divorcee, the second, a widow. Time called her “The Renaissance Woman of the Century.” Her achievements were enviable, but her life was turbulent. She was born Ann Clare Boothe in New York City on March 10, 1903. Her parents were not married and separated in 1912. She would use Clare Boothe Luce as her professional name in honor of her second