Hoover Institution, Stanford University — The Hoover Institution Library & Archives has acquired the papers of Heath Hardage Lee, an award-winning historian, biographer, curator, and lecturer whose work has significantly advanced the study of women’s history, political power, and public life in twentieth-century America.
The Heath Hardage Lee papers comprise approximately five boxes of interviews, research notes, and manuscript drafts related primarily to her acclaimed book The League of Wives: The Untold Story of the Women Who Took on the U.S. Government to Bring Their Husbands Home from Vietnam (2020). The League of Wives chronicles the extraordinary efforts of military spouses who organized, protested, and negotiated with the U.S. government during the Vietnam War to advocate for prisoners of war and missing service members. Central to that story is Sybil Stockdale, whose leadership transformed a loose network of anxious families into a disciplined and effective political force. Lee conducted extensive research in Hoover’s holdings on Sybil Stockdale and James B. Stockdale, drawing on correspondence, diaries, and personal reflections preserved by the Library & Archives.
Lee’s latest book, The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: Washington's Most Private First Lady, was published in August of 2024 and is the first commercial biography of First Lady Pat Nixon in almost 40 years. For her work on the Nixon era, Lee relied upon Hoover’s recently opened John Ehrlichman papers. The biography was longlisted for the Biographer's International Plutarch Award and named a finalist for the Library of Virginia People's Choice Nonfiction award. In conjunction with the book's publication, Lee participated as a speaker in the series that accompanied Hoover Library & Archives’ 2024 exhibition “Un-Presidented: Watergate and Power in America.”
Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, commented that “the personification of the postwar ideal of the self-effacing homemaker, Pat Nixon was an intensely private person, in a painfully public role, at a time when America's role and a woman's role were both subjects of bitter debate. To relive that era of turmoil from the First Lady's anguished vantage point in Heath Lee’s thoroughly researched and elegantly written biography is unexpectedly enthralling.” Renowned biographer Jonathan Eig, author of King: A Life and Ali: A Life, called Lee’s book “a marvelous biography—a deeply reported, illuminating story of love, ambition, and influence.”
In addition to her books, Lee has curated exhibitions, lectured widely, and contributed essays on women’s history and politics to national publications including Time, The Atlantic, The Hill, and White House History Quarterly. Lee and her work have been featured on the Today Show, C-Span's "Q and A", and on the Smithsonian Channel's America's Hidden Stories.
She currently serves on the Boards of FLARE the First Ladies Association for Research and Education, and BIO, Biographer's International Organization. She lives in Richmond, Virginia with her family and her French bulldog (and writing muse) Dolly Parton.
