Thursday, March 29, 2012
WHEN O'DONNELL KEPT PRESSING HIM TO LEAVE DALLAS, HE ASKED HIM, "WELL, WHAT ABOUT MRS. KENNEDY?" If you haven't seen it yet -- and if not, why not? -- this week's New Yorker features a lengthy excerpt from Robert Caro's The Passage of Power (due May 1, 2012) on the events of November 22, 1963, from Lyndon Johnson's perspective. Online, it's for subscribers only, but the good folks at the magazine have been kind enough to unlock seven other Caro/LBJ pieces from the archives (“Presidents, he told the young aide, were known by their initials. ‘F.D.R.—L.B.J., F.D.R.—L.B.J. Do you get it? What I want is for people to start thinking of me in terms of initials.’”), as well as a collection of photos of Johnson from that day -- and part of what Caro helps us understand is just how much care Johnson put into getting that swearing-in photo just right.
As mentioned above, I've been tearing through Stephen King's 11/22/63; might be time to finally start on Caro.
ReplyDeleteTip for those planning to read the article: It's useful not to conflate "Yarborough" and "Youngblood" in your head. As I did. For part of the article I was in awe of the fact that this liberal Senator who earlier in the day refused to sit in the same car as LBJ suddenly was throwing himself on top of the man he despised to protect him from any futther attack.
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