‘Matriarch’ paints a full picture of Barbara Bush
Biography traces her tragedies and triumphs
Editor’s note: The author of “The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty” is USA TODAY’s Washington bureau chief Susan Page, who has covered six White House administrations and 10 presidential elections.
As the final hours of her life ticked away, Barbara Bush kept a bedside digital clock counting down to the second when President Donald Trump’s term in office would end. That surprising, politically telling detail and others made national headlines last week when USA TODAY published an excerpt from Susan Page’s new biography, “The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty.”
The book (Twelve, 432 pp., ★★★g) is out now.
But even more fascinating is the rest of the story. In this insightful, touching, personal saga of the happiness and heartaches that shaped Bush into one of this nation’s most formidable first ladies, Page makes a compelling case that behind the trademark white hair, string of pearls and sharp wit was one of the most powerful, overlooked and underappreciated women of our times.
The heartrending, humanizing first chapter covers “six brutal months” in 1953 when Barbara and George Bush, in their late 20s and seeking fortune in West Texas oil, agonized through the leukemia and death of their 3-year-old daughter, Robin. This tragedy greatly affected their personal lives thereafter and deeply influenced the evolution of an American dynasty that produced two U.S. presidents, a vice president, a U.S. senator and two governors.
Throughout the book, Page covers the behind-the-scenes political world where Barbara Bush persevered and made a difference. But the author
never loses sight of what matters more than the political story that brands the Bush family. From Bush’s childhood insecurities about her looks and her 16year-old crush meeting George H.W. “Poppy” Bush at a country club dance, to serious bouts of depression and her feisty relationship with son George W., this biography embraces the many small stories of “the joys and minutiae of life.”
So many of the engaging stories illustrate what a tough, warm-hearted, unpretentious and vulnerable woman Bush was, whether staring down a threatening hippo during a safari in Africa or respectfully standing up to thenfirst lady Nancy Reagan, who despised her. While some critics saw her as an anachronism, the other-era housewife and mother at odds with the new feminist world, Bush proved ahead of the curve in advocating for literacy and championing AIDS awareness. When she died in 2018, she and George H.W. Bush were the longest-married presidential couple in American history (73 years).
Page earned Barbara Bush’s trust during her final six months, when her health was failing, but she was still mentally sharp and her candid self.
What’s notable besides Page’s extensive research that included interviewing more than 100 Bush family members and friends is that before her death, Bush unexpectedly granted Page entree to her diaries, personal papers and letters that are embargoed until 2053.
That trove of private thoughts, insider politics and American history populates this exceptionally readable Bush biography – and makes it unlike any you will read for the next 34 years.
So many of the stories illustrate what a tough, warm-hearted, unpretentious and vulnerable woman Bush was.