Cordery’s publishers at Viking informed her that not only had Alice been named an alternate selection by the country’s top three book clubs, but it would also require her to hit the road for a major book tour. That tour, which included Dallas, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York, concluded Oct. 27 with the keynote address before the annual conference of the Theodore Roosevelt Association in Boston.

Subtitled "Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Power Broker," the book was released Oct. 22. It has captured the attention of historians because Cordery was granted unprecedented access to family papers and photographs concerning Longworth, who died in 1980 at the age of 96 and had long been referred to as "the other Washington monument."

Reviews have appeared in such publications as Vogue, More and the New York Times Book Review, as well as newspapers including the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Washington Times. Cordery’s talk at the Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington will be shown during a future edition of "Book TV" on C-SPAN2.

"Alice" is currently listed at No. 9 in the "People, A-Z" category of bestsellers on Amazon.com.

In July, Booklist’s reviewer wrote, "This absorbing, magnificently complete biography, the first to be written based on Alice’s own papers, presents her as the first female celebrity of the twentieth century. What that meant in terms of how she viewed herself and how she was viewed by her famous father and an adoring public is explored in Cordery’s impressively astute psychological understanding of this quite complex personality."

Her father’s most famous view about his "wild child" daughter was, "I can either run the country or control Alice, but not both."

Added Theodore Roosevelt biographer Patricia O’Toole, "Finally, a biography of Alice Roosevelt Longworth that presents her in full and takes her seriously as a player in Washington politics across seven decades and thirteen presidencies. Admirably researched, perceptive, and as much fun as Mrs. L herself, Alice adds scope and depth to our understanding of Washington’s mores, the inner workings of the American political machine, and the endlessly captivating clan from which she came."

What does Cordery say herself?

"The Roosevelts are always around me," she said few years ago in the midst of writing "Alice" and the textbook "Theodore Roosevelt: In the Vanguard of the Modern." She added, "It’s like that Jimmy Stewart movie with the big rabbit. I have Alice instead of Harvey."

When it came time to write her graduate history dissertation at the University of Texas, Cordery said she turned to Alice instead of her other favorites, Eleanor Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt, because much less had been written on the former First Daughter.

"I have documents on Alice from her granddaughter that no other historian has ever seen," said Cordery, who titled her dissertation, "Alice Roosevelt Longworth: Life in a Public Crucible."