In 1870 Mary Leiter was born in the suburbs of Chicago, the daughter of a self-made man. Although she died aged only thirty-six, she became the most famous American woman of her times. As the wife of Lord Curzon, and Vicereine of India when British power was greatest, she occupied with incomparable grace, courage and distinction the most splendid position which any American, man or woman, has ever held in the British Empire.