The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon:
Washington’s Most Private First Lady Revealed
Speaker: Heath Hardage Lee, with an introduction by H. R. McMaster
Although First Lady Pat Nixon was voted “Most Admired Woman in the World” in 1972 and made Gallup Poll’s top ten list of most admired women fourteen times, she has long been portrayed as enigmatic in America’s collective consciousness. The real Pat Nixon, however, bore little resemblance to the woman so often described in the media. Drawing from research for her new book The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington's Most Private First Lady, author Heath Hardage Lee dispels popular myths about the life and legacy of "Plastic Pat," revealing the First Lady's critical work in American diplomacy and feminism.
Upcoming biography by Heath Hardage Lee
Learn more about The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington’s Most Private First Lady by Heath Hardage Lee, available August 6, 2024 from St. Martin's Press.
About the Speaker
Heath Hardage Lee is an award-winning historian, biographer and curator who specializes in women’s history. Heath’s narrative nonfiction book entitled The League of Wives: The Untold Story of the Women Who Took on the U.S. Government to Bring Their Husbands Home from Vietnam was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2019. Heath’s museum exhibition entitled The League of Wives: Vietnam POW MIA Advocates & Allies about Vietnam POW MIA wives premiered at the Dole Institute of Politics in May of 2017 and traveled to venues all over the United States through 2023. The League of Wives is currently being developed as a television series. Heath also writes about women’s history and politics for publications such as Time, The Hill, The Atlantic and White House History Quarterly. Heath’s new book The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: Washington’s Most Private First Lady is the first commercial biography of First Lady Pat Nixon in almost 40 years.
About the Un-Presidented Speaker Series
The Un-Presidented Speaker Series highlights conversations with historians and experts of the Nixon era, and is presented by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in conjunction with the exhibition Un-Presidented: Watergate and Power in America now on view in the Lou Henry Hoover gallery of Hoover Tower at Stanford University.
