Brash but beautiful, an assiduous rules-breaker known for smoking in public and speaking her mind, Alice Longworth, the oldest child of President Theodore Roosevelt, turned a desire to gain her father’s attention into a determination to influence politcians for most of the 20th century. She wed a Republican congressman from Ohio, who went on to become Speaker of the House and cheat on their marriage (which led Alice to bear a child with renowned Sen. William Borah of Idaho). A great one for cross-party manipulations, she undermined Woodrow Wilson’s League of Nations and denounced her cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. But she later ditched the GOP and voted for John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, only to go on and enourage Richard Nixon’s second run for the presidency. A vigorous gossip, Alice Longworth was famous for the adage, “If you haven’t anything nice to say, come sit by me.” Stacy A. Cordery captures her in all her defiant finery in Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker (Viking $32.95) ~ Jeff Pierce