Editing Clare Boothe Luce (section)

==Marriage to Henry Luce==
The marriage between Clare and Henry was difficult. Henry was by any standard extremely successful, but his physical awkwardness, lack of humor, and newsman's discomfort with any conversation that was not strictly factual put him in awe of his beautiful wife's social poise, wit, and fertile imagination.<ref>Morris 1997, pp.&nbsp;284–85, 306–08, 357–64.</ref> Clare's years as managing editor of ''[[Vanity Fair (American magazine 1913–1936)|Vanity Fair]]'' left her with an avid interest in journalism (she suggested the idea of ''Life'' magazine to her husband before it was developed internally).<ref>Morris 1997, pp.&nbsp;283–84, 291.</ref> Henry himself was generous in encouraging her to write for ''Life'', but the question of how much coverage she should be accorded in ''Time'', as she grew more famous, was always a careful balancing act for Henry since he did not want to be accused of nepotism.

It has been reported that their marriage was sexually "open".<ref>Nasah, David 2012 ''Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy'' Penguin</ref> Clare Luce's lovers included Ambassador [[Joseph P. Kennedy]], [[Randolph Churchill]], General [[Lucian Truscott]], General [[Charles A. Willoughby|Charles Willoughby]],<ref>Morris, Sylvia Jukes 2014 ''Price of Fame: The Honorable Clare Boothe Luce'' Random House</ref> and [[Roald Dahl]].

Joseph P. Kennedy was the father of several United States politicians. Clare Luce at times provided advice to the campaigns of [[John F. Kennedy]], who became the 35th U.S. president.

Dahl, who became a very successful author after the war, was at the time a young RAF fighter pilot, temporarily assigned to Washington. He was part of a plan developed by spymaster [[William Stephenson|Sir William Stephenson]] (code name "Intrepid"), intended to weaken American isolationist thinking by influencing, among others, American journalists and politicians. Dahl was
{{blockquote|instructed to romance Clare, who was thirteen years his senior, to see if, with the right kind of encouragement, she could warm to the British position.}}
The very tall (6'6") and athletic Dahl later claimed he found his affair with Clare to be so physically demanding that he had begged the British ambassador to relieve him of the task, but the ambassador told him he must continue.<ref>Jennet Conant. ''The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington''. Simon & Schuster. New York. 2008. pp. 120–121</ref>

In the early 1960s, both Luces were friends of philosopher, author, and [[LSD]] advocate [[Gerald Heard]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.geraldheard.com/bio2.htm|title=Gerald Heard – The official Gerald Heard Website|access-date=January 18, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928144720/http://geraldheard.com/bio2.htm|archive-date=September 28, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> They tried LSD one time under his careful supervision. Although taking LSD never turned into a habit for either of the Luces, a friend (and biographer of Clare), [[Wilfred Sheed]], wrote that Clare made use of it at least several times.<ref>Sheed, Wilfred 1982 ''Clare Boothe Luce''. Berkley: New York, p. 125</ref>

The Luces stayed together until Henry's death from a heart attack in 1967. As one of the great "power couples" in American history, they were bonded by their mutual interests and complementary, if contrasting, characters. They treated each other with respect in public, never more so than when he willingly acted as his wife's consort during her years as ambassador to Italy. She was never able to convert him to Catholicism (he was the son of a Presbyterian missionary) but he did not question the sincerity of her faith, often attended Mass with her, and defended her when she was criticized by his fellow Protestants.

In the early years of her widowhood, she retired to the luxurious beach house that she and her husband had planned in Honolulu, but boredom with life in what she called "this fur-lined rut"<ref>Sylvia Jukes Morris, "In Search of Clare Boothe Luce", ''The New York Times Magazine'', January 31, 1988.</ref> brought her back to [[Washington, D.C.]] for increasingly long periods. She made her final home there in 1983.