JENNIE, The Young Lady Churchill

by Rosemary A. Curtis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 15, 1963

Not really working with the limits set by the title, the author hastily sketches Jenny Jerome's American childhood and actually takes her from her 18th year and breaks off the biography at her 44th. On her son Winston Churchill, there is one chapter, strangely tacked on out of chronological order at the very end of the book, describing his birth scene. Her last twenty-five years after Lord Randolph's death are crammed into only four lines and ""She married twice again-- but that's another story"". Perhaps, but surely not one deserving of another whole book for this age level where this book could have been made to serve. A great deal is made of the meeting between New Yorker Jenny and Lord Randolph. This is made even more melodramatic than it really was by the author-projected emotions and premonitions which Jenny is said to have felt. The only valuable section of the book covers her years as a forceful political helpmeet and hostess of note during Lord Randolph's rise and fall, with issues and their repercussions firmly in place. Readers interested in the period will be better served from adult titles- Leslie, The Fabulous Leonard Jerome which has much about the young Churchills, and Amory's Who Killed Society which takes a more balanced view of the trans-Atlantic marriage. A manipulated and unnecessarily incomplete biography

Pub Date: Nov. 15, 1963

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Chilton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1963

Categories: NONFICTION