"He was the son of an alcoholic shoe salesman. She was the adopted daughter of a wealthy doctor. Both Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis learned the value of cultivating the right friendships when they were young. Ronnie found his first marriage and political ambitions at irreconcilable odds, but when he met Nancy, one of the most remarkable career-building and romantic partnerships of all time was born." Now comes the definitive portrait of America's First Couple, in a book that is at once a political saga, a social history, and an unforgettable love story. With unprecedented access to Nancy Reagan, her personal papers, and the couple's closest friends - including many who have spoken on the record for the first time - Bob Colacello sheds light on the Reagans' early years and the development of the future president's political ideas. Delving into their Hollywood careers, Ronald Reagan's marriage to actress Jane Wyman, and the Reagans' complicated relationship with their children, Colacello sets the record straight about the most private aspects of their lives. Most of all, he reveals how the Reagans perfected their social skills into an art form, rising through fashionable Los Angeles society to the governor's mansion in Sacramento in 1967 and to the front door of the White House in 1980. Behind them, helping them climb from one peak to the next, was the Group, a clique of wealthy men and glamorous wives that would wield tremendous power throughout Ronald Reagan's political life.--BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved