but she seated me at mrs. luce's table. and she said to me ahead of time, she said she won't take any notice of you, she's not interested in women at all. she'll only focus on the men -- [laughter] which, of course, she did. she didn't talk to anybody but alistair horne the entire dinner until the very end she lifted her head and said what do you do, young lady? i said, well, i'm a writer. and she said, oh, you're much too young to be a writer. and that was it. [laughter] so at the end of the evening i'm standing at the top of of the stairs waiting to leave, and she came up, and i thought she'd mistaken me for the hostess who was also short and dark. and, go, she was going to kiss me good night. so she gave me a kiss and said good night, you sweet thing, or something like that and swept out. and i was absolutely flabbergasted. so i then plucked up my courage and wrote her the first of several letters asking if i could do her biography. and she was really reluctant at first, but the bostons kind of gave a dinner party, and w

hawaii tod gone to work on mrs. luce's personal papers.he kept every scrap from the day she was born practically. never threw anything away. all her diaries, letters, analysis of herself which she frequently wrote. i had seen them and they were to be shipped to the library of congress for me to work on them there. i didn't have time to xerox everything. i waited and waited for them to come. she was still alive and they never came. we thought they were lost at sea. when she died, i got a call from somebody who was clearing out a warehouse in washington where she had stowed a lot of furniture she didn't need. he said, you won't believe this, that trunk with all the papers is here. it is clearly labeled but it was shipped to the warehouse. i thought they were lost and i was really desperate. all the really important stuff was in that trunk. the personal stuff which gave an idea of the real clare. that is why the book took so long. there is a new book of letters of robert frost. they say there is so much more in it now than the original editio

>> hank luce married his second wife, a woman who had been married to mr. hurt. she had two sons. it was william who went on to be the great movie star. i think he is fantastic actually. he became her step grandson i suppose. >> have you got another book you are writing? >> no, i spent the whole year finishing this one. now i am on the road publicizing it. that will go on more or less to the year. >> you have another book you think you want to write? >> not so far. my theory about biography is that the subject finds you. it happened with my husband several times and happened to me both times too. my two books, it was a wonderful accident of history have it came about. >> how did edith roosevelt's biography start with you? >> my husband was writing about theodore roosevelt. when i was helping him type on the old typewriters, i said, you don't have much in this book about the wife, the second wife. he said, there is nothing known about her. i said, there must be something. that is when i started to investigate her. i found a lot of correspondence from her. it was a character waiting