Not 10ng after her seventieth birthday£¬Helen finally yielded to<br > friends who had been urging her for years to write a book about<br > her remarkable lire£®She tried to make it a priority but generally<br > failed£»she was too busy addressing students on campuses£¬protest-<br > ing the aims race£¬supporting the women7S movement£¬campaign¡¯<br > ing for presidential candidates£¬making study tours all over the<br > world£¬enjoying her family--and fighting cancer£®<br > In her twenties she was a brilliant star on Broadway£¬hailed as<br > another Ethel Barrymore and once described as¡°ten of the<br > twelve most beautiful women in the world£®¡±She abandoned that<br > career at its height in order to study voice£®In her thirties she<br > dazzled critics in the music capitals of Europe£®She iS best known<br > for her third career，as a U£®S£®congresswoman£¬and for her defeat<br > by a fledgling politician£¬Richard Nixon£¬in a 1950 senatorial race<br > in Califomia which some describe as the dirtiest campaign in<br > American politieal history£®<br > Hden refused for twenty years even to discuss what happened<br > in that bitter autumn£®Only at the time of Watergate£¬when re-<br > porters searched her out£¬did she express some courteously worded<br > criticism of Richard Nixon£®She had to be perSuaded not to omit<br > all mention of that campaign in this autobiography£®Her reason£®<br > ing was that she had been fortunate to walk away from that de£®<br > feat without a burden of hatred and resentment that might have<br > crushed her£®She was delighted to find herself on the morning<br > after the election a whole woman£¬even a happy one£¬eager to go<br > on with her life£®<br > She plunged into research and lectures to warn Americans that<br > the arms race was folly of unimaginable magnitude£®She remained<br > passionately concerned about conservation and about the misera-<br >