King Edward VIII: An American Life - Book Review (September 2018)

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A few months ago, I was contacted by a publicist and asked if I was willing to do a review of the new biography, King Edward VIII: An American Life, by Ted Powell. As part of this review, I got an early reader copy of the book.

I was very intrigued by this book because I knew little about King Edward, except for the abdication scandal. I was also very interested by the American focus of the biography.

I thought this book was absolutely delightful and highly entertaining. Powell has very thoroughly researched Edward's life and tells his story piece by piece so you can see events as they unfold.

It is a pleasure to be able to share this book with you as our September book review. And I am even more delighted that I get to give away a copy to a lucky reader! (See end of blog post for how to enter our giveaway!)

King Edward VIII: 
An American Life 
By Ted Powell

This book is a biography of King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom. Many of you know him as Queen Elizabeth II's uncle; the man who abdicated putting Elizabeth in the direct line to the throne.

The book takes a very interesting point-of-view, focusing on Edwards' fascination with America and America's love for the Prince. Powell's describes the book as:

"[...] a fundamental reassessment of the life and reign of King Edward VIII by viewing it through the lens of his lifelong fascination with the United States of America. Such an approach throws a new light on important aspects of Edward's career as Prince of Wales and latter as King: his innovative approach to the performance of his royal duties; his democratic style and impatience with the rigidities of court life; his love of modernity; and his choice of friends and lovers." (Pg 3)

This book is a great read for everyone, whether you are learning about Edward for the first time or have always been intrigued by his story.

By King Edward VIII
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Like many other King Edward historians, Powell tries to answer that age-old question: "What made Edward abdicate the throne?" Powell doesn't take the simple answer, Wallis Simpson, but rather dives deep into Edward's life to see the events as they unfold. Powell proposes that Edward's abdication wasn't just about his desire to marry Wallis Simpson. But rather, stems from Edward's modern American personality and his separation of public and private life.

Like many royals today, Edward tried to separate his royal duties and private life. But for Edward, this was a deep psychological divide. He became, in a way, two different people. In his public life, he was Edward, the Prince of Wales and heir to the British Throne. In his private life, he was David (as he was known by his family, close friends, and lovers) and lived a very Americanized life.

"In reality Edward had struggled long and hard over many years to come to terms with his royal destiny, but the battle had been lost well before 1936. [...] He was not simply choosing Wallis Simpson over the throne, but an Americanized version of himself over his British identity."  (pg 220)

Edward has spent decades creating these two distinctive lives. And, when Edward became King, he did not what to give up his private life. And insisted the two lives remain intact and separate. One of the most startling examples was, Edward's continued use of his private weekend retreat where he tried to maintain his private life as David:

"[...] he was often away at the Fort [Belvedre] with Wallis [Simpson] from Friday until Tuesday. The 'red boxes' of official correspondence sometimes went astray, or were returned unread. On one occasion Mike Scanlon, one of Wallis's circle of American friends, was asked to drop off some official correspondence at Buckingham Palace after a visit to the Fort. Scanlon was the Air Attaché at the US Embassy, and at the Palace Alexander Hardinge was not impressed to receive secret British state papers from the hands of an American intelligence officer." (Pg. 207) 

The book covers the important events in Edward's life & around the world that eventually lead to Edward's abdication. It looks at Edward's trips to North America, his American friends and American lovers. (Wallis Simpson was Edward's 3rd serious American lover.) It explores Edward's desire to modernize the monarchy by taking a much more democratic, hands-on approach.

"Like the thousands of immigrants welcomed to New York by the Statue of Liberty, Edward weary of the constraints of the Old World, was 'yearning to breath free'. He was seduced by American culture, language, music, dancing, consumerism, and, of course, by American women. It was his tragedy that, as heir to the throne of the British Empire, he was himself the embodiment of the old order." (Pg. 3)

Powell also looks at the Americans' love and interest in Edward. It was the age of jazz. TVs had yet to become standard in homes. People got their news from newspapers, radio, and newsreels shown in movie theaters. The Americans' had a very different perspective on the Royals than the British public. They viewed the Royals as celebrities. And the American media was much freer about what they could report, as they didn't have the same restrictions as the British press. And Powell shares how the American press influences (& possibly even caused) Edward's abdication.

A video from Powell on what started Edward's love of America:

Some takeaways from: 

King Edward VIII: An American Life

With each month's book review, I share with you some of the things from the book I thought most interesting, thought-provoking and inspiring, that will hopefully help you with your own writing. (And things I certainly will be thinking about in my own.)

Vivid stories

A biography is a non-fiction work, so it is all about facts, real events, real people, etc. You can't make things up, but you can present this information in a way that is very entertaining.

When summarizing a person's life, we often like to talk about what that person did in general. And this can be kind of vague and abstract because we are generalizing. However, if you can talk about specific examples, it makes the writing much more vivid and entertaining.

Powell shares a bunch of little stories about Edward's life, from being one of the 1st Brits to surf, turning an UK naval ship into a bar while in New York City during Prohibition, playing the drums in a Jazz band, etc. While each of these stories helps to illustrate Powell's points and shares insight into Edward's life, they are also just entertaining and interesting.

Organization

Powell covers a lot of information in this book, and a lot of it will likely be new to many readers. But, Powell does a good job of not making the book too overwhelming. While the book is sort of in chronological order, each chapter looks at a certain topic or theme. (E.g. Edward's 1919 Tour of North America, Edward's ranch in Canada, etc.) Powell starts in the Introduction by giving you an overview of King Edward and the main topic being address in the book. And then each chapter builds off of the introduction and the previous chapters.

Powell does repeat himself a little bit, referring back to events from previous chapters. But it helps to connect the different themes and grounds the reader in things they already know, before going into new details.

For example, in the chapter on Edward's 1919 Tour of North America, we learn about Edward buying his ranch in Canada. It was an important part of the tour, so it needs to be mentioned there. But then there is a whole chapter on Edward's ranch in Canada, where Powell talks about Edward's history with the ranch from beginning to end. This allows us to get a sense of what the ranch meant to Edward, and what it represented in terms of Edward's escape from royal life.

Context of the Time Period

Obviously, any biography needs to be very well researched. This is non-fiction, so it is all about facts. And as a historian, Powell does a very thorough job researching. There are 38 pages of notes and a 10-page bibliography at the back of the book.

What impressed me most was the amount of primary, contemporary sources that Powell looked at, and his focus on putting things in the context of the time period. To fully understand the significance of the events, and why things happened, you need to look at it as it happens, not with a 2018 perspective.

There are also a lot of things going on in society during that time: WWI, the Great Depression, WWII, international agreements, etc. And these events play an important role in shaping Edward and societies' thoughts and actions. And Powell does a good job of giving you that context.

Self-standing chapters

The book has a very good narrative and flows when you read it all the way through. (And I would definitely recommend reading the book in its entirety.) But the book does allow a person to read individual chapters. Powell made sure each chapter is self-contained. You never need to read a previous chapter, but if you did it would give you a fuller understanding.

With non-fiction there is always that question, "Is this a good reference material?" And I think self-standing chapters help to make this a good reference material. In addition to this been well-written and very informative, you can easily flip to and get information about a certain period or event in Edwards life. The book also has a thorough 15-page index, which makes the book very easy to search.

** Giveaway **

We were lucky enough to be given an extra copy of King Edward VII: An American Life! And you have a chance to win it!

Giveaway Ended!
Congratulations to @LittleFriday34

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