UNITED STATES AUTHOR · FICTION · WOMEN ART DEALERS
Margaret Truman
Also known as: Margaret truman
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.
The radio on the helicopter was tuned to the tower frequency, and the crisp metallic voices said Air Force One was on final approach long before anyone could see it.
— from Murder in the White House, 1980
Most acclaimed
Murder at the Library of Congress
1999
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.
Murder in the White House
1980
A ripping, original novel of unprecedented crime in the cloistered precincts of the highest office of the land. Within the White House's own walls, the body of the distinguished if raffish Secretary of State is found garroted. No one is above suspicion -- not the White House Chief of Staff, not the Cabinet members, not even the First Family including the President himself. It is a murder for which too many have too many disconnected motives, or so it would seem.
The president's house
2003
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.