Born in New York City on April 10, 1903, Ann Clare Boothe grew up there and in Memphis and Chicago. She was educated privately, and after graduating from The Castle in Tarrytown, New York, in 1919 she studied drama for a time. She married George T. Brokaw in 1923 and was divorced from him in 1929. She was employed by the CondÄ Nast publications from 1930 to 1934, as an editorial assistant on Vogue in 1930╨1931, an associate editor of Vanity Fair in 1931╨1933, and the managing editor of the latter magazine in 1933╨1934. In 1931 she published a volume entitled Stuffed Shirts. In November 1935 she married Henry R. Luce, publisher of Time and Fortune magazines. In the same month her first play, Abide With Me opened on Broadway. Her second, The Women, a biting satire, opened in December 1936 and enjoyed a two-year run. She subsequently contributed to Broadway and later the motion pictures Kiss the Boys Goodbye, 1938, and Margin for Error, 1940. After a lengthy European tour for Life magazine in 1940 she published Europe in the Spring, 1940.
In 1942 Luce was elected as a Republican to Congress from the 4th District of Connecticut. During her two terms in Congress she served on the Military Affairs Committee and was an outspoken critic of the Democratic administration. She delivered the keynote address at the 1944 Republican National Convention. After leaving Congress in 1947 she returned to journalism for a time. In 1952 she edited Saints for Now, an anthology of essays. In that year she campaigned strenuously for Dwight D. Eisenhower, and after his election as president he nominated her for the post of U.S. ambassador to Italy. The nomination was confirmed in March 1953. She held the post until ill health forced her to resign in November 1956.
In April 1959 President Eisenhower named her ambassador to Brazil. She was confirmed over vigorous opposition led by Senator Wayne Morse. Her subsequent comments on Morse reopened the controversy, and in May she resigned. She continued thereafter to contribute articles and stories to magazines. In 1964 she made a seconding speech for Senator Barry Goldwater at the Republican National Convention.
In 1971 Luce returned to the theatrical world with a feminist play, Slam the Door Softly, which was produced in Los Angeles. The Women was revived successfully on Broadway in 1973. In 1973 she was named by Nelson A. Rockefeller to the blue-ribbon National Commission on Critical Choices for America. She sat also on the President╒s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under Presidents Nixon and Ford from 1973 to 1977, and again under President Reagan from 1982 to 1987. In 1983 she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She died on October 9, 1987, at her home in Washington, D.C.
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