Henry and Clare

The stormy marriage of Henry Luce (1898-1967), founder of the Time-Life publishing empire, and Clare Booth Brokaw (1903-1987), editor of Vanity Fair , congresswoman, war correspondent, playwright and diplomat, was a fiercely competitive alliance marked by intense loneliness and numerous affairs on both sides. Godfearing, patriotic Henry, son of Presbyterian missionaries to China, had two great loves: theatrical producer Jean Dalrymple and Lady Jean Campbell, daughter of British newspaper tycoon Lord Beaverbrook, who married Norman Mailer. Henry's affairs with these and other women drove his outspoken, brash wife to demand a divorce and attempt suicide, even though she herself had a stream of lovers. Martin ( Charles and Diana ) reveals Henry's yearnings to be a public hero and his frustrated political ambitions. He portrays Clare as a woman consumed by private demons, including knowledge of a brother's probable suicide. This riveting dual biography is both a peek inside the Luce publishing empire and a candid love story that rips away the veil of secrecy surrounding a ``royal American couple.'' Photos. (Aug.)