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Franklin Roosevelt had been Assistant Secretary of the Navy for exactly two months when Theodore Roosevelt, the man who had given Eleanor away at their wedding, wrote to him with advice. It was not a rebuke, he insisted. It was advice. The fleet must never be divided. Not a single battleship should sit in the … Read more

Es war der 23. Oktober, Markus’ vierzigster Geburtstag. Ich hatte um fünf Uhr morgens angefangen zu kochen: Kräuterhähnchen, goldbraune Kartoffeln, den Salat mit dem besonderen Dressing, das er seit seiner Kindheit liebte, und die Schokoladentorte, für deren Verzierung ich drei Stunden gebraucht hatte. Meine Hände schmerzten, aber es war der Geburtstag meines Sohnes, meines einzigen … Read more

In 1959, Crown Prince Harald of Norway met Sonja Haraldsen at a party in Oslo. He was a military cadet and the heir to the throne. She was the daughter of a clothing merchant. The meeting seemed ordinary, but it set off a nine-year struggle between love and royal tradition. At the time, royal marriages … Read more

On August 31, 1989, Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips announced they were separating after nearly 16 years of marriage. The news left their children, Peter and Zara, at the center of a royal family rearrangement. Yet Buckingham Palace immediately added a curious reassurance: there were no plans for divorce proceedings. The marriage was ending, … Read more

Pohřeb byl tichý, až to řezalo. Ale ještě ostřejší byl smích mého syna, když se naklonil ke svému notýsku a pronesl slova, která měla být šepotem, ale dopadla jako rána: „Stejně je napůl mrtvá. Měli bychom ji odsunout a začít znovu. “ Seděla jsem dvě lavice za ním a slyšela každou slabiku. Prsty jsem zatnula … Read more

In the fall of 1955, a twenty-six-year-old woman with impeccable taste and no money of her own selected a white brick house in McLean, Virginia, and painted a nursery for a child who would never sleep in it. After her daughter was stillborn in August 1956, Jacqueline Kennedy could not bring herself to return to … Read more

In late December 1955, Bess Truman stood before the fireplace in her Independence, Missouri, home and began feeding bundles of letters into the flames. Her husband, Harry, had just returned to find her destroying what would have been one of the most remarkable personal archives in American political history—nearly 1,300 love letters he had written … Read more

On December 19, 1961, Joseph Kennedy was playing golf at the Palm Beach Country Club with his granddaughter Caroline. He returned home, complained of fatigue, and collapsed. The stroke destroyed his ability to speak. One word remained: no. The legend says he bought the presidency for his son and ruled from behind the curtain. His … Read more

They buried her with the ring still on her finger, worn thin from forty years, its inscription barely readable: “Al to Mary, November 4th, 1842. Love is eternal. ” That was the story America kept—the devoted couple, the tragic widow. But the man history calls the gentlest president spent months at a time away from … Read more

Serena mu podala černou kávu a unaveně se usmála. Derek ji chvíli pozoroval. Pak sáhl do kabátu, vytáhl malý složený papírek a tiše ho položil pod šálek. Vstal a bez jediného slova odešel z bistra. Chvíli nato si Serena při úklidu stolu všimla ubrousku pod šálkem. Sebrala ho a rozložila. Vypadla z něj stodolarová bankovka … Read more