When Laura Bush moved into the White House on January 20,2001, everyone wanted to know what kind of first lady she would be.Would she be like Mamie Eisenhower? Would she follow in BarbaraBush’s footsteps? Would she be another Hillary Clinton?

“I think I’ll just be Laura Bush,” she would say.

On Saturday, April 30, 2005, the world got a glimpse of what thatmeant when she pushed aside the leader of the free world and stolethe show at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.Wearing a shimmering lime green Oscar de la Renta gown, Laurawisecracked that she was a “desperate housewife” married to apresident who was always asleep at nine.

Replayed constantly on the air, the stand-up routine with itsimpeccable comedic timing turned the first lady into a glitteringstar. But while the performance catapulted her to new status, itdid not answer the question of who this former teacher andlibrarian really is and just what role she plays in influencing herhusband and shaping his administration. The Bushes are moreeffective than the FBI or CIA at keeping secret what goes on behindthe scenes at the White House, the ranch, or Camp David.

Now, New York Times bestselling author Ronald Kessler drawsback that curtain in the first biography of Laura Bush to bewritten with White House cooperation. Based on interviews with herclosest friends and confidantes from childhood to the present, aswell as family members and administration heavyweights likeCondoleezza Rice and Andrew Card, Kessler paints a portrait of awoman who, even as she ascended to the heights of political fortuneand power, never lost touch with the bedrock American values sheabsorbed in her youth.

In this unprecedented account, Kessler reveals:

How Laura’s opinions have brought budget changes to a range offederal agencies and have affected her husband’s policies,appointments, and worldview.
Why Laura told her press secretary in May 2001 she did not want todo any more media interviews.
What President Bush said to Laura at the dinner table after givingthe “go” for the invasion of Iraq, and what his father, formerPresident George H. W. Bush, wrote him the next day about thewar.
What Laura’s own political opinions are and what her relationshipwith twin daughters Jenna and Barbara is really like.
What Laura says in private about Hillary Clinton, media attacks onher husband, and his victory in the 2004 election.
And why Laura, at the age of seventeen, missed a stop sign andcaused a fatal accident that tragically left one of her bestfriends dead.

LAURA BUSH offers a remarkable look at the private world of thisfamously reserved woman, as well as the beliefs and attitudes thatshape it. The book will surprise readers whose knowledge of thefirst lady comes from cautious media interviews and speeches.

Laura Bush’s approval rating stands at 85 percent. Since opinionpolls first began asking about them, no first lady has received ahigher rating. This moving biography is the first to penetrate thesecret world of the president’s stealth counselor who is one of ourmost admired public figures.