American Jennie

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"Brooklyn-born Jennie Jerome married into the British aristocracy in 1874, after a three-day romance. She became Lady Randolph Churchill, wife of a maverick politician and mother of the most famous British statesman of the century. At a time when women were afforded few freedoms, Jennie Churchill was not only the most talked about and controversial American woman in London society but also a behind-the-scenes political dynamo and a skilled businesswoman." "However, it was Jennie's love life that marked her out, causing scandal in its day and earning her the epithet "more panther than woman." She was sexually fearless at a time when women were supposed to be sexually vapid. Yet, in other ways, Jennie was deeply loyal to her husband. When he was dying of syphilis she took him on a round-the-world trip to conceal his violence and mania. He returned in a straitjacket with only weeks to live." "After Randolph's death her great project became her son Winston, with whom she was entwined in an intense mutual dependency. Although Winston was not to become the nation's leader until two decades after his mother's death, he had already acquired from Jennie an unshakable faith in his destiny." "With unprecedented access to private family correspondence, newly discovered archival material, and interviews with Jennie's two surviving granddaughters, Anne Sebba draws a vivid and frank portrait of her subject. She repositions Jennie as a woman who refused to be cowed by her era's customary repression of women. Neither a bad mother nor a sexually predatory wife, Jennie Churchill was creative and passionate, determined to live life to the full."--BOOK JACKET.