biographies of US presidents: S and D

okay i can't really help. are gore vidal's novels about them all any good?

Burns's biography is one of the best on FDR, I haven't read it cover-to-cover, but I consult it every now and then and I've found it to be very informative, especially on the politics of his presidency. It's only the first of two, though; the follow-up volume is Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, which focuses on the last five years of his presidency.

Gore Vidal's Burr is a great read, full of catty, gossipy (but v. well researched) commentary on various eminent personages - particularly Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Martin Van Buren, one of those unlionized presidents, is also a focus. Lincoln is simply tremendous. 1876 spotlights the corruption of Grant's presidency and the nasty, dirty politics of the campaigns of Hayes and Tilden - again, lots of catty tidbits. I was reading Vidal's memoir Palimpsest concurrently, which is full of firsthand observations of the Kennedys. Empire gives an astonishing portrait of Teddy Roosevelt, the conflation of the battle of San Juan Hill and the machinations and meddlings of the US in the Phillipines, all orbiting around William Randolph Hearst. I haven't read the remaining novels in the series, but they have all been better than good as well as accurate - Vidal delineates his deviations from the historical record in the postscript of each.

It matters that FDR dived into marriage young with an ugly cousin to get away from his doting mother. It matters that his love for Lucy Mercer drove Eleanor Roosevelt to baleful despair. It matters that LBJ "was rude, boorish, taunting, humiliating, and thought nothing of urinating into the sink in his office while still interviewing someone". It matters that Jacqueline Bouvier was not the love of John Kennedy's life but "a cultural snob par excellence" who evoked "tantalisingly little initial interest or affection on JFK's part" before "a sullen, desultory romance" made her the necessary wife and – like Lady Bird Johnson – a kind of mute brothel supervisor, finding and fielding young aides and interns who could keep him happy for an hour or two (even under the dinner table).

this looks pretty interesting. i wish there was something like this on the scale of bathroom reading books.

That does make it sound great. I'd been put off by a rather sour review in The Sunday Times last week. The complaint there was basically 'not enough Rome', come to think, which I could hardly care less about.

Hamilton's JFK book was gossipy but readable (and credible IMO)

Great presidential bios:

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr - Age of Roosvelt (hagiographic in chunks, but he's a terrific stylist and knows how to construct these grand narrative arcs).
Joseph Ellis - American Sphinx on Jefferson
Edmund Morris' two-volume TR set.
Garry Wills - Nixon Agonistes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY4Qkp7FoaE

ok i think i may need that american caesars book

also, i still have not got a copy of the caro johnson bio

this is really good. lots of stuff i didn't know:

http://twitchfilm.net/news/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TTwOs5OjJ7g/S7KhESupHSI/AAAAAAAAAqY/ETgGOGu1djU/s1600/Abe+vampire_back+cover.jpg

Master of the Senate is simply one of the best books I've ever read. Such assurance, fluidity, etc.

Also, Jaq is 100% OTM on Vidal's historical fiction – an excellent gateway to the epoch it's covering (and very accurate).

I have wanted to read one of those caro volumes for years. Do I have to start chronologically?

I didn't!

So I can get away with picking up Master of the Senate and skipping the rest?

Yup!

though you shouldn't -- 'the path to power' is probably longer than it needed to be but you really do need to read about how lyndon stole his high school election, etc. plus much of it is just great, great writing, fascinating even in the (surprisingly long) stretches that have virtually nothing to do with lbj.

if you skip one, make it the second book, 'means of ascent,' which is just an extended look at the 1948 election, and includes far too much about governor coke stevenson, a segregationist who caro rather bizarrely lionizes as a kind of romantic hero, with lots of passages that read like imitation louis l'amour.

i enjoyed miller's 'plain speaking' way back when i read it, but i've since heard that miller may have made a lot of the quotes up.

i agree with the recommendation of 'nixon agonistes.' for maximum effect, follow it up with jonathan schell's 'the time of illusion,' the best book i've read on the man's actual presidency.

The recent Leuchtenberg bio on Hoover for the American Presidents series is the first one to separate the myths from the reality, without ever attempting a revisionist take. You can read it in a couple of afternoons.

friend of mine recommended 'the audacity to win' recently

also said friend turns out to work in the white house these days, to which i could only think: oh maaaaaaaaan

not technically a biography, i admit

hagiographies of US presidents: S and D

... it's about campaign strategy?

Should I even read Dumas Malone's hagiography?

I'm tempted.

probably more fun to just page through TJ's collected works looking for the good stuff, i'd think.