Margaret Truman
Personal Information
Description
Margaret Truman was born in Independence, Missouri, the daughter of then-future President and Mrs. Harry S. Truman. She was raised in Independence until 1934 when her father was elected to the U.S. Senate, and she began to split her time between Independence and Washington, D.C. She graduated from private school in 1942, and earned her Associate of Arts degree from George Washington University in 1944, the year her father was elected Vice President. She received her B.A. in History from from George Washington University in 1946. Having been taking voice lessons for seven years, she made her concert debut in 1947, singing over a nationwide radio hookup with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. She began a series of concert tours that would go on for about six years. She made her first television appearance in 1950 on Ed Sullivan's "Toast of the Town" show. In January 1953 when her father left the White House, she moved to New York City to work more closely with the National Broadcasting Company. She began writing in addition to her broadcasting career, and her first book, Souvenir, Margaret Truman's Own Story, was published in 1956, the same year she married New York Times assistant-editor Clifton Daniel. In February 1965, she became co-host of a daily television program broadcast from Philadelphia. In 1966, she began a daily radio interview program called "Authors in the News." In 1973, she moved with her family to Washington D.C. when her husband became chief of the New York Times Washington bureau. In 1977, her husband retred and they moved back to New York City. Over the course of her writing career, she wrote nine works of non-fiction and 24 murder-mysteries, although some people believe that the mysteries may have been ghost-written by a different author.
Books
Murder at the Washington Tribune
From senators to summer interns, from all the president's men to all-powerful women, Margaret Truman captures the fascinating, high-wire drama of Washington, D.C., like no other writer. Now this master of mystery fiction takes us into the capital's chaotic fourth estate. At the big, aggressive newspaper The Washington Tribune, a young woman has been murdered. And the hunt for her killer is making sensational and lethal headlines.The victim, fresh out of journalism school, hoped to make a splash at the Trib--and then a maintenance man found her in a supply closet, brutally strangled to death. The Trib's journalists are at once horrified and anxious to solve the crime before the cops do, and put this scandal to rest. But the Metropolitan Police Department isn't going to let byline-hungry reporters get in the way of its investigation, and soon enough the journalists ad the cops have established warring task forces. Then a second woman is killed, in Franklin Square. Like the first, she was young, attractive, and worked in the media.For veteran Trib reporter Joe Wilcox, whose career is mired in frustration and disappointment, the case strikes close to home. His daughter is a beautiful rising TV-news star. As his relationship with a female MPD detective grows more intimate, Joe sees a chance to renew himself as a reporter and as a man. Spearheading the Trib's investigation, he baits a trap with a secret from his own past.Suddenly Joe is risking his career, his marriage, and even his daughter's life by playing a dangerous game with a possible serial killer, while a police detective is bending rules for the reporter she likes and trusts but may not know as well as she thinks she does. As Joe's daughter finds herself trapped at the heart of a frantic manhunt, the walls come down between family, friendship, ethics, and ambition--and a killer hides in plain sight.Chilling, riveting, and richly rewarding, Murder at The Washington Tribune is a brilliant tale of real people in a world where law, power, and honesty collide--and where the punishment only sometimes fits the crime.From the Hardcover edition.
The president's house
As Margaret Truman knows from firsthand experience, living in the White House can be exhilarating and maddening, alarming and exhausting--but it is certainly never dull. Part private residence, part goldfish bowl, and part national shrine, the White House is both the most important address in America and the most intensely scrutinized. In this splendid blend of the personal and historic, Margaret Truman offers an unforgettable tour of "the president's house" across the span of two centuries. Opened (though not finished) in 1800 and originally dubbed a "palace," the White House has been fascinating from day one. In Thomas Jefferson's day, it was a reeking construction site where congressmen complained of the hazards of open rubbish pits. Andrew Jackson's supporters, descending twenty thousand strong from the backwoods of Kentucky and Tennessee, nearly destroyed the place during his first inaugural. Teddy Roosevelt expanded it, Jackie Kennedy and Pat Nixon redecorated it.^ Through all the vicissitudes of its history, the White House has transformed the characters, and often the fates, of its powerful occupants. In The President's House, Margaret Truman takes us behind the scenes, into the deepest recesses and onto the airiest balconies, as she reveals what it feels like to live in the White House. Here are hilarious stories of Teddy Roosevelt's rambunctious children tossing spitballs at presidential portraits--as well as a heartbreaking account of the tragedy that befell President Coolidge's young son, Calvin, Jr. Here, too, is the real story of the Lincoln Bedroom and the thrilling narrative of how first lady Dolley Madison rescued a priceless portrait of George Washington and a copy of the Declaration of Independence before British soldiers torched the White House in 1814.^ Today the 132-room White House operates as an exotic combination of first-class hotel and fortress, with 1,600 dedicated workers, an annual budget over $1 billion, and a kitchen that can handle anything from an intimate dinner for four to a reception for 2,400. But ghosts of the past still walk its august corridors--including a phantom whose visit President Harry S Truman described to his daughter in eerie detail. From the basement swarming with reporters to the Situation Room crammed with sophisticated technology to the Oval Office where the president receives the world's leaders, the White House is a beehive of relentless activity, deal-making, intrigue, gossip, and of course history in the making. In this evocative and insightful book, Margaret Truman combines high-stakes drama with the unique perspective of an insider. The ultimate guided tour of the nation's most famous dwelling, The President's House is truly a national treasure.--Publisher description.
Murder at Ford's Theatre
It was the site of one of the most infamous assassinations in American history. Now bestselling mystery master Margaret Truman premieres a new murder at Ford's Theater--one that's hot off today's headlines.The body of Nadia Zarinski, an attractive young woman who worked for senator Bruce Lerner--and who volunteered at Ford's--is discovered in the alley behind the theatre. Soon a pair of mismatched cops--young, studious Rick Klieman and gregarious veteran Moses "Mo" Johnson--start digging into the victim's life, and find themselves confronting an increasing cast of suspects.There's Virginia Senator Lerner himself, rumored to have had a sexual relationship with Nadia--and half the women in D.C. under ninety. . . . Clarise Emerson, producer/director of Ford's Theatre and ex-wife of the Senator, whose nomination to head the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is now threatened by the scandal . . . Jeremiah Lerner, her aimless, hot-tempered son, said to have been sleeping with Nadia when his famous father wasn't . . . Bernard Crowley, the theatre's controller, whose emotions overflow at the mention of the crime . . . faded British stage star Sydney Bancroft, desperate for recognition and a comeback, and armed with damning information about Clarise Emerson . . . and other complex characters from both sides of the footlights.With her unparalleled understanding of Washington and its players, and her savvy sense of how strange bedfellows cut deals even in the midst of mayhem, Margaret Truman always delivers the most sophisticated and satisfying suspense. Murder at Ford's Theatre is her most compelling, insightful novel yet, sure to earn her a standing ovation from her many fans and new followers alike.From the Hardcover edition.
Murder in Georgetown
Sargeant Peavy, the newest member of the Federal Reserve Board, led a completely scrupulous life; if you don't count a string of extramarital affairs stretching back as far as anyone - including his wife - can remember. When he's found naked and dead in his Georgetown townhouse, with and ear-ring owned by his latest mistress on the floor next to him, the D.C. police force is convinced they have an easy arrest and conviction before them. Which probably would have been the case if the mistress, Jessica Dee, hadn't been a friend of Mrs Roosevelt's and an FDR informant. As the intrepid Mrs Roosevelt investigates the circumstances surrounding Peavy's murder, the reader is treated to all the historical recreation and satisfying storytelling that have become hallmarks of this series.
Murder at the Library of Congress
Margaret Truman looks inside one of D.C.'s great institutions, the Library of Congress, the place where much of the wisdom of the nation is collected, and finds blood on the floor.Was there a second diary, beyond the one Columbus kept, describing his voyage to the New World? Leading scholars at the Library of Congress think so, and Annabel Smith, with her pre-Columbian interests, has been commissioned by the library's magazine, Civilization, to write about it.She is not the only person interested. Word comes through the rare-books black market that a wealthy bibliophile has been offered the second diary: He'd not only pay, he'd almost kill to possess it. Starting her search in the library itself, Annabel soon finds herself competing with an ambitious TV journalist. As both women come closer to finding the hidden documents, other questions creep up. Was the murder of the library's most prominent Hispanic scholar connected to the missing diary? Further research leads them deeper into barely explored corners of the library and closer to having to face their own mortality.Murder in familiar yet surprising surroundings- a great library- leads to a surprising conclusion in this latest Capital Crime novel.From the Hardcover edition.
Women of courage
Brief biographies emphasizing the courage of twelve women both famous and little-known in United States history.
Where the Buck Stops
Truman comments about FDR, the workings of the government and the Constitution, and presidential duties. "Outspoken, sometimes outrageous, always full of common sense and uncommon insights, this totally frank book by Harry S. Truman brings us the full flavor of an exceptional man and his ideas. With the down-home, across-the-back-fence feeling of a born storyteller from Missouri, the thirty-third president speaks directly and conversationally to the reader about the office of the presidency, about the eight best and eight worst U.S. presidents, and about his own experiences in office."--Book Jacket.
Murder at the National Cathedral
Murder didn't stop Georgetown law professor Mac Smith (Murder at the Kennedy Center) and Annabel Reed from falling in love or from getting married at the National Cathedral. But the brutal murder of a friend forces the couple from their newlywed bliss into an unholy web of intrigue and danger.