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Kerry Nolan: This is All Of It. I'm Kerry Nolan in for Alison Stewart. During Woodrow Wilson's second term, the president suffered a stroke, leaving him bedridden and unable to perform many of the duties required of his job. Wilson was fortunate enough to have his wife, Edith, who performed many of her husband's presidential duties, all the while concealing the truth about her husband's condition from the public.

A new biography details the life of Edith Wilson, the first, first lady to publish a memoir, the first to stand behind the President during the oath of office, and even the first woman with a driver's license in Washington DC. Earlier this month, we spoke with biographer Rebecca Boggs Roberts about her book Untold Power: the Fascinating Rise in Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson. Alison started by asking Rebecca why she decided to begin the book with the first few days in Washington after Woodrow Wilson's stroke.

Rebecca Boggs Roberts: First of all, that scene is bananas. I mean, it is this setup where members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are tired of not hearing anything from the White House. They take an excuse of a complicated situation in Mexico to say, we need to go find out the President's opinion on Mexico and insist on showing up in person.

The president was a really sick man, and his wife, Edith Wilson, his Dr. Cary Grayson, and his secretary, Joe Tumulty, had really conspired to keep that detail from everybody, the public, the press, the Congress, the cabinet, the president himself, the vice president, and had really just told everyone he was fine, he was making decisions behind closed doors, and they really needed to stop asking so much. This was the first moment when people really started to question that stonewall and say, "If he's okay, we need to see him, and if he's not okay, we need to know that."

Edith and Cary Grayson and Joe Tumulty, they propped him up in bed and draped the blanket over his paralyzed left side and staged the whole thing with lighting that left him in shadow. It really is this Weekend at Bernie's moment, and you think, "How did it get to this?" That's why I wanted to start the book there, because you read that scene and you think, "Wait, what?" Ideally, it draws you in to understand the whole breadth and scope of the story.

Alison Stewart: What does it illustrate about Edith Wilson and how far she would go?

Rebecca Boggs Roberts: Edith Wilson was not afraid [laughs] to take control of almost any situation. She had the confidence in her own ability to muscle on through. That's one of the reasons I wanted to write the book, is other biographies that concentrate solely on her time as First Lady. I get why, it's a fascinating chapter, but it's this sliver of what was a very long life. If you are only looking at that moment, you might be amazed that she did those things, but if you were paying any attention to Edith Wilson at all before that, you shouldn't be surprised. She telegraphed again and again that she was the woman who would take charge, who would manipulate a situation. It worked for her and her loved ones, and she really wasn't all that concerned with the truth.

Alison Stewart: You note in your epilogue that probably the only place where you can really find information or a tribute to Edith Wilson that does not include her husband is in her hometown. What did you learn from visiting where she grew up in Virginia?

Rebecca Boggs Roberts: She grew up in Wytheville, Virginia, which is in the southwest corner in the Appalachian foothills. Her childhood was not necessarily the one her family expected her to have. They had been planters in the James River Valley, and after the Civil War, they could no longer sustain a plantation without enslaved labor and had to move to these somewhat cramped little rooms over storefronts.

She was the sixth of nine children, so there were a lot of people in there, both grandmothers, a few aunts, a couple of cousins, various hangers on. She easily could have been lost in that shuffle. She was singled out as a favorite by her totally terrifying grandmother, who taught her, somewhat unusually for the time, that she was special, that she was smart, that she should rely on her own opinions, and she did have justifiable confidence.

Meanwhile, she was getting from her other grandmother, and of course, from society at large, the Victorian southern women should be pious and submissive and domestic message. I don't want to psychoanalyze a woman too much 150 years later, but I really do think those two conflicts, her natural inclination for strength and brands and confidence and the social expectations of submission and piety, explain a lot of the contradictions of Edith Wilson. She was doing a lot and pretending she wasn't.

Alison Stewart: Edith was introduced to Woodrow Wilson by her friend, Cary Grayson, who would act as Wilson's doctor for pretty much his life. Grayson is often present in the anecdotes in this book. What do you make of this threesome, Edith, Woodrow, and Cary?

Rebecca Boggs Roberts: [laughs] Yes. Cary Grayson is an interesting character, and I hope somebody writes the biography just of him. He and Edith were friends before she met the president, and they were mainly friends because Cary Grayson was courting a young woman who was a very close friend of Edith, Altrid Gordon. Edith was the agony aunt there, she gave them each advice and she arranged times and places for them to meet she listened to all of the rollercoaster ups and downs of their relationship, which had quite a few.

When Woodrow Wilson's first wife, Ellen, died in 1914, he was heartbroken and he was really lonely, and Cary Grayson was his doctor and was worried about him, was worried he was depressed and sad. Wilson and Ellen had three daughters who, when they moved to the White House, were unmarried young women. In the meantime, two of them got married and moved out. The third one wanted to be a singer. She was off on tour trying to have a career.

He was rattling around that big old White House alone. He had a cousin, Helen Bones, who was taking on whatever first lady duties couldn't be ignored in a White House in mourning, and she was lonely too, and worried about Woodrow. Cary Grayson hit on this idea that Edith should befriend Helen. I think that was all staged from the very beginning. I think the ultimate plan was for Edith to meet Woodrow. That's how Cary came in the back door. He asked Edith if she'd befriend Helen Bones, and Edith said no. She said she didn't want any part of official political Washington, that wasn't her world.

Cary said, "You don't need to worry about official political Washington, the White House isn't doing anything. They're in mourning. She just needs a friend. Be nice." Edith and Helen became friends, and one of the things they did a lot was take walks through Rock Creek Park, and usually, they'd finish their walk and go back to Edith's house in DuPont Circle and have tea.

One day, Helen insisted that they go to the White House for tea instead, which was a little weird. Edith said, "I've just been for a walk in the park, my boots are muddy. I don't want to show up at the White House in muddy boots." Helen insisted and swore they wouldn't run into anyone. They could go up the private elevator, don't worry about the boots.

They go to the White House, and inevitably, because, of course, this was a setup, they go up the elevator, the elevator doors open. There is Cary Grayson and the president, and so they all have tea together. The president more or less fell in love at first sight. He was just gone from the minute she stepped off that elevator. She took a little while longer.

Alison Stewart: Yes, he was pretty gobsmacked. He would sneak off to just watch her while World War I was going on.

Rebecca Boggs Roberts: Isn't that amazing?

Alison Stewart: It is amazing.

Rebecca Boggs Roberts: I have to say, Alison, I never liked Wood Wilson very much. I've written books on the suffrage movement. You don't learn to say a lot of nice things about Woodrow Wilson in that context, but his letters made me like him more because he's so vulnerable and out there. He'll admit to sneaking into the green room and watching her through the lace curtains while she's at a lady's tea at the White House while he's president of the United States and trying to figure out whether or not the US should be involved in global conflict. He's catching a little sneak peek of his girlfriend.

Alison Stewart: She preferred to go by Mrs. Woodrow Wilson rather than the First Lady. What was her reasoning? Why did Mrs. Woodrow Wilson mean more to her than the First Lady?

Rebecca Boggs Roberts: I think she had a lot to lose. That independence and social status was rare enough and enjoyable enough, frankly, that she knew giving up her independence and her privacy was going to be a very big deal. She also knew that she was going to be accused of being a social climber, not a gold digger, because he had no money and she had plenty, but of wanting, as she said, the office, not the man.

When she decided she would marry him, she was all in. She had taken a long time to think about it. She understood what was at stake, she understood what she was giving up, and she just jumped in with both feet, which was characteristic. Also, remember she became First Lady overnight. She didn't have an honorant of any kind.

She had to pick her public persona of what presence she was going to have publicly, and so she picked dutiful wife. She never gave interviews. She showed up wherever he showed up to make his life easier. She pitched that pretty well. If she was going for something that would be popular with the press of the day, she chose wisely. That Mrs. Woodrow Wilson's stuff was what she wanted to be known for. She wanted everyone to think that she was devoted to him and it wasn't about national stature or fame in her own right.

Alison Stewart: It's interesting because we said, "Oh, we'll book this book about Edith Wilson on Feminist Friday." She would not have liked that.

Rebecca Boggs Roberts: No, she sure would not.

Alison Stewart: Even though she behaved like one. She was not--

Rebecca Boggs Roberts: Right. That's why I find her so fascinating. Actually, I think that there are more women's stories like that than not, at least 100 years ago, that women who made history had to pretend they weren't making history.

Alison Stewart: Yes. Was she truly anti-suffrage?

Rebecca Boggs Roberts: Oh, it kills me to say so, but yes, she was. Why was this car-driving business-owning independent tradition-breaking woman anti-suffrage? Why didn't she want to exercise all of her rights as a citizen? I don't know. I think she never said exactly why. She certainly hated the tactics of the Moore Militant National Women's Party, especially when they started picketing the White House in 1917 and really criticizing Woodrow Wilson very directly. She hated that.

Even before that, she was anti, and some of it was just classist. I think there was just a little something not nice about those suffrage activists. If she wanted social cover, she could have had it. There were plenty of fancy society ladies in the movement. I think it goes back to that Victorian southern cult of true womanhood stuff that a lot of women at the time felt that there was something inappropriate about wanting to participate in public political life.

Alison Stewart: After Woodrow Wilson has the stroke, he was weak, he was bedridden. The idea was that even if he could do the work, if he was pushed too far, if that would have adverse effect on his health. Edith adopted her role, which she described as a steward.

Rebecca Boggs Roberts: Yes. Her stewardship.

Alison Stewart: What did her stewardship actually include?

Rebecca Boggs Roberts: How's that for euphemism? According to Edith, the doctors came to her after his stroke, which was major, he was a very sick man, and said if he is exposed to any kind of stress, if he gets out of bed, if he's not able to sleep as much as he needs to sleep, in other words, if he is president of the United States, he's going to die. If he quits, he's going to die because the only thing he's living for is to see this division of the League of Nations in Global World Peace, and so he's got to stay in office. Also, PS, if he dies, global peace will never be achieved. That's how high the stakes are. If he does everything he's elected to do, he's dead. If he quits, he's dead. If he's dead, no world peace.

From Edith's point of view, what could she possibly do as the most devoted wife? She could do his job for him until he was better enough to do it himself, which she claimed was not very long, and the stuff she did for him was not very extensive. That is hogwash. She controlled who saw him, she took meetings, she drafted public statements. Anyone in the cabinet who needed something wrote letters directly to her, she wrote back. She claims she consulted him in what she wrote back. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It went on for an extraordinarily long time. Now, I'm not sure she did anything he wouldn't have done. She knew his mind and his priorities quite well. She wasn't seizing control for her own agenda, but no one elected Edith to anything. It was 100% unconstitutional.

Alison Stewart: Is there anything in our daily lives today that Edith Wilson had an impact that we can say, "Oh, this is because of that woman in that period of time"?

Rebecca Boggs Roberts: Yes. Hard to know because she covered her track so well. I think, actually, the thing she did that had the most impact was keep him isolated because he lost such extraordinary touch with what the nation cared about and even what the Democratic Party cared about. If you are only surrounded by people telling you you are brilliant and healthy and the nation loves you, you become almost delusional in your worldview to the point where he thought he could run for re-election in 1920, which is preposterous. He never would've survived a campaign, and even if he had, he wouldn't have won. The nation had moved on and he dragged his feet for so long on saying whether or not he'd run again that an era parent couldn't really emerge from the pack.

Maybe Warren Harding would've won in 1920 anyway. Maybe that's what the nation wanted, but the fact that the Democrats more or less forfeited that campaign because they couldn't nominate someone until the last minute and they nominated James Cox. That might have been the biggest impact of that whole situation.

Alison Stewart: Edith Wilson lived for more than 30 years after Woodrow Wilson's death. That was longer than she'd even known him, which is amazing when you really put it in that context. She really tended to the legacy of Woodrow Wilson, she really shaped the legacy, put up a firewall between what really happened and what she wanted the world to think happened. What else did she do with her life?

Rebecca Boggs Roberts: That legacy stuff was a real deal. You talked about how we're revisiting this notion of Wilson as a heroic figure. Well, where did that heroic figure come from? That was Edith Smith making, she really dedicated herself to that. She also went back to enjoying being an independent widow of means. She traveled the world. She was always very fashionably dressed. She had really good jewelry, as you might imagine, from someone who owned a jewelry store.

She also, because she was here in Washington, when they left the White House in 1921, when Warren Harding was inaugurated, they decided to stay here in town, which no presidential couple had done at that point. Now, the Obamas have done it. She realized as this first lady here in town, that she had a role to play in welcoming future first ladies. She had each of them to tea, regardless of party.

Not to say, come pay homage to me, the grand dame of first ladies, but to say, "I actually know this job is bonkers and really hard and you've got a friend here in Washington." To me, that's a really interesting part of her post-Woodrow life that she saw a figure that maybe she wished she had had of someone telling her, "You're not wrong, being First Lady is really crazy."

Kerry Nolan: That was biographer Rebecca Boggs Roberts speaking to Alison about her new book, Untold Power: The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson.

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Next, we'll finish today's show by hearing from Nicola Vasel, one of the only Black women to own their own art gallery in New York City.

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