Not to be morbid myself, but how does it hamper the work you have left to do when so many of the sources you’ve relied on are no longer alive?Robert A. Caro. I love that guy. He has a new book, "Working," which is not the long-awaited final volume of the LBJ series. It's a book about researching and writing. And it's short (for him) — only 240 pages. As for the LBJ book: "You couldn’t want anything more than I want to be finished with this book. At the same time, it’s important not to rush it. But you asked me how confident I am that I’ll finish. Well, of course I’m not." Caro is 83.
I was just saying to Ina that there used to be a group of people I could go back to with questions and now I can’t. Soon I’m going down to Austin on my book tour, and it’s poignant, because I used to know everybody.... It was 30 or 40 people, and they became my friends over these years. Now every one of them is dead, and it’s as if I’m left to tell their story. I go to Austin, and there’s not one person left, and I’m getting old.
Are you well-situated with the material you’ve already compiled to be able to finish the last L.B.J. book the way you want to?
This happens to me every day: There are questions I should ask, but the people aren’t here to ask anymore.... There are a few. But dramatic things happen. George Christian, who was Johnson’s White House press secretary, he attacked my first two books. I had tried to talk to him, and he basically sent word to me to go [expletive] myself. Then I heard that he had lung cancer. He had chemotherapy but recovered, and then the cancer came back. One day he calls me out of nowhere and says “I guess it’s time for me to talk to you.”
Death is a motivator.
Yes. I had three interviews with him. The first time I was talking he had an oxygen mask on his desk. The second time he had to use the mask. Then the third time he was using the mask the whole time, and suddenly he said, “I guess you’ll have to get the rest from someone else, Bob.” Then he called for his chauffeur. A short time later he died. I use him as an illustration of the people who ultimately wanted to help me understand Lyndon Johnson and the vanishing world of Texas politics.
April 1, 2019
"What does it mean to know that there is a group of people out there having the somewhat morbid concern that you might not finish your book before you die?"
"It’s hard to avoid that. Every time someone does an article on me it’s there," said Robert A. Caro, answering the NYT interviewer David Marchese.
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I am waiting for that book but fear it might end up as Manchester's Churchill biography. Having to be finished by another, lesser author.
We will be doing some driving in June and I listen to the audio of his books. We have been through it twice. I was listening to it and then my wife was in the car one day and announced that she wanted me to go back to the beginning,. We did and have gone through it twice.
We have to drive to CA twice this month and might listen again. It is a 7 hour drive each way,.
He can always hire Brandon Sanderson to finish it.
(To expand upon Rick's statement)
Years ago I was way into these sprawling fantasy fiction book series by authors like Robert Jordan and George RR Martin.
I remember when Robert Jordan was diagnosed with a fatal form of amyloidosis. He died before finishing his gargantuan Wheel of Time book series and his widow found another author (Brandon Sanderson) to finish the last few books. There was a pretty noticable pacing and stylistic shift from in the last few books. Jordan was/is infamous for his glacial style of storytelling, dwelling in minutiae and excessive exposition. Brandon Sanderson, the new author was much more conventional in his narrative style, so the new books clipped along.
As for George RR Martin, it's likely that he may die before finishing Song of Ice and Fire I guess.
It is disconcerting to have a favorite author who you are waiting for the next in a series. George R R Martin....Game of Thrones is a prime example. It has taken years for his books to come out and people are anxious, upset, worried and eagerly waiting the next installments.
Come ON!!! Hurry up. We are waiting!!!
I don't think that Martin, in particular, or any other author or artist appreciates the pressure to perform. But....he created this monster :-)
Nonapod said...As for George RR Martin, it's likely that he may die before finishing Song of Ice and Fire I guess.
We'll all die before he finishes. And so, apparently, will every person in Westeros.
George R. R. Martin faces the same problems. Most of the people in his books are dead too. Sad.
Caro is 83 and says, "I’m getting old." "Getting" tells us everything we need to know.
Puccini was 2/3rds finished with "Turandot" when he died. Someone else finished it with ersatz Puccini, but at its premiere, conductor Arturo Toscanini announced "the Maestro stopped here" and ended the performance. Wiki says he may or may not have conducted the second, full performance.
it's likely that he may die before finishing Song of Ice and Fire
I don't think he's even going to try. He published two non-ASOIaF books since the last series book. If he was interested he would have spent his time differently.
Plus he's working on several different Westeros based shows / films. One report was that he has 5 in various stages of production.
Hopefully not reminiscent of William Manchester and his Churchill biography. Manchester took time out to write A World Lit Only By Fire. Then he died.
Paul Reid did an admirable job finishing Manchester's trilogy, and, indeed, brought in a fresh look at some things that Manchester took as givens.
Last summer I blew off taking my daily bicycle ride for a few days because of the weather and instead streamed Ken Burns history of New York City on Amazon Prime, a program I had never seen before. I particularly enjoyed the episodes on Robert Moses, mainly because of the great commentary by Caro. I have put "The Power Broker" on my to-read list but not sure when I will get to it, I have too many books in the queue now.
I'd like to hear more about how the all-around debauched reprobate LBJ planned out Jack's murder.
Blogger Dust Bunny Queen said...
It is disconcerting to have a favorite author who you are waiting for the next in a series.
WEB Griffin died recently but his books had weakened as his son took over more and more writing. The same happened with Stephen Ambrose. Neither son was a very good writer,.
I have read mot mod GRiffin's novels and probably most of Ambrose books.
there was an interesting set of novels by david stone, about an operator based out of venice after the fourth one, he had discontinued the series, it turns out he was actually Carsten stroud, an author with a different style altogether, he did another southern gothic series,
was it really his sons influence or was it he had become cynical, so his clandestine operations series, is a mash like lark in berlin in the 40s, at the beginning of the company's founding, technically it's the ssu,
I make the mash connection, because he had written a series of tales with the creator of mash, Richard hooker in the 60s,
my philly cop friend, once told me his police series, was based on real characters, but I never got around to find out who were the major players,
My guess is that Caro will live just long enough to finish the final Johnson book. It could be what keeps him going and he may not be in a rush to finish because of that.
I think the only biographies of reprobates that I've read is Paul Johnson's Intellectuals and Reckless Youth about JFK. With all the crime shows and books I've seen and read, you'd think there would be more.
I started a second Griffin book and realized it was a cyclical formula that I found boring and repetitive.
my philly cop friend, once told me his police series, was based on real characters, but I never got around to find out who were the major players,
When my daughter was in the FBI academy, we went back for her graduation and the Academy book store had all his police series novels. I read somewhere the name of the guy who fed him the stories. He also credited a neighbor in Alabama (Daphne, a great town) with his Marine Raider book and maybe most of the Marine Corps series. The Army series was his own story and the Argentina books were written after his wife died and he moved to Argentina.
I started reading the Caro LBJ series about a month ago based on what Althouse has said about it over the years. I've just begun the 4th volume. Reckon I'll read the Moses book next, and maybe the one that's just come out, but I'm really eager to finish LBJ. It's a magnificent, riveting work. And I never had the slightest prior interest in the subject, being just slightly too young to have remembered him and having heard nothing interesting about him later.
I've only read two other biographies that seem in Caro's league--Peter Brown's Augustine of Hippo and Diarmaid MacCullough's Cranmer--but in both those cases I was interested in the person beforehand.
Martin won't have to finish his series, since HBO's doing it for him. This saves us the bother of reading his books. I only say that because my stepson got through book 1 but couldn't finish book 2.
The Wheel of Times series was fascinating to me, even though I never read it. There's a thread on The Straight Dope that asked how far they got through the series (this was asked when Jordan was still alive and writing, I think there were about 16 books out then).
The responses were all over the map. There were people still reading them, of course, but people dropped out along the way at various times. There was one book which consisted of nothing but characters walking from one place to another. There were readers who were fed up with reading elaborate descriptions of clothing and landscapes. Some gave up after book 2.
It told me something about readers' habits, and how the "true fans" would put up with a lot of abuse before giving up. But if you want to be a best-selling novelist, you'd better learn to rein it in.
As for Caro, I appreciated the recent excerpt explaining how Johnson became a power in the Senate, despite his age, because he became a conduit for money from Texas oilmen to Democrats.
It seems to explain a lot about why AOC hasn't been laughed out of her seat. There's money backing her.
Althouse hearts Caro, but doesn't say whether she also hearts LBJ.
I read one of the Caro books probably 30 years ago. The main thing I remember is that LBJ cheated in this first Senate race, won by 42 mysterious votes (or some small number) and got the nickname, "Landslide Lyndon."
Caro was interesting because he is obviously a loyal Democrat but really disliked Johnson. I suspect he began as a fan but did his research.
I have mentioned this before but do not mind doing so again.
For people who are interested in the work of Robert Caro and his particular craftsmanship in his monumental work on LBJ, there are a whole series of interviews over the course of any years with Brian Lamb of C-SPAN and Caro. Brian Lamb is the most underrated interviewer in the history of cable television. The C-SPAN website is wonderfully searchable and usable for free.
In his interviews with historical authors, Lamb always makes it a point to ask them about their actual work; where they work, how they record their words, when they do their writing. Lots and lots of "craftsmanship" questions.
And Caro and Lamb together have an amazing cheistry where Lamb (as always) stays out of the way of his subject, and the subject is free to both answer directly and also roam to the most interesting places beyond the scope of the question.
I found Caro's book about Robert Moses absolutely fascinating - a way to understand big cities and their politics and policies. Once NYC wanted the middle class. But I think that kind of big city is over. The middle class went to the suburbs. And then came another change where the children of the suburbs either made it in the new economy or didn't; and the didn'ts will vote socialist. But what my young relatives call socialism is really them being able to live their parents' suburban life style without the economic underpinning. Suburban socialism (Gramscian) is about not being poor if you have a useless BA in the humanities or social sciences or such and are stuck in the gig economy.
Robert Caro's book tour stops in Beverly Hills, where I have a ticket to watch him interviewed by Conan O'Brien, who has tried to get "his hero" on his show for many years without success. Not sure if it will be recorded.
"Caro was interesting because he is obviously a loyal Democrat but really disliked Johnson. I suspect he began as a fan but did his research."
I would say the exact opposite. Caro strikes me a NYC liberal, who disliked LBJ because of Vietnam and economics, and suspected he was a fake-liberal on social issues. He's become more positive toward LBJ as the biography has progressed. First, because of LBJ's late 50s and early 60's support for Civil Rights, and second, Biographers usually fall in love with their subjects after a while. Or at least in the case of Caro, you stop disliking your subject.
The other point is that LBJ as a young man was crude and ambitious and not above lying and committing election fraud to get what he wanted. However, he basically got a "Senate Seat for Life" and become Majority Leader, he could direct all that ambition toward pushing policies he liked.
"I'd like to hear more about how the all-around debauched reprobate LBJ planned out Jack's murder."
Then read Book 4 in the series, "The Passage of Power."
Caro does not find that LBJ was behind the assassination, but reading the book, I sure felt suspicious that he was.
"Brian Lamb is the most underrated interviewer in the history of cable television. The C-SPAN website is wonderfully searchable and usable for free."
I agree completely. He did some great interviews, and Caro was one of the best. His interviews with Shelby Foote and Tom Wolfe were good too.
"Althouse hearts Caro, but doesn't say whether she also hearts LBJ."
I hate LBJ. I can't remember ever not hating him. I was 12 when JFK died. I supported Goldwater in 1964, when I was 13. I hated Nixon when he ran in 1968, but when I was 9, in 1960, I was for Nixon because my parents were for Nixon.
My parents lived in Texas City, Texas after they got out of the army in the late 1940s, and they were adamant about what a dishonest, vile politician LBJ was.
Manchester was a better writer than Caro.
Just my opinion -- don't hate me!
The biographies of Teddy Roosevelt by Edmund Morris were glorious.
They were so good that the Reagans hired him to do one of Ronnie -- but it turned into an epic mess.
Althouse sez: "I hate LBJ. I can't remember ever not hating him. I was 12 when JFK died. I supported Goldwater in 1964, when I was 13. I hated Nixon when he ran in 1968, but when I was 9, in 1960, I was for Nixon because my parents were for Nixon.
My parents lived in Texas City, Texas after they got out of the army in the late 1940s, and they were adamant about what a dishonest, vile politician LBJ was."
Thatsa lotta hatred for a young gal!
So, outta curiousity isn't a bit odd to love the Caro books about a guy (LBJ) you hate?
That'd be like me loving the various biographies of Hillary Clinton (assuming the biographers wrote and researched as well as Caro.)
"Manchester took time out to write A World Lit Only By Fire. Then he died."
On the other hand, A World Lit Only by Fire is a pretty darn good book.
After writing the first three of my Hacker golf mysteries, I had the brilliant idea to do a "major" series...central character Hacker, a golf writer, goes to each of the four major tournaments, someone is murdered, and he solves the case before the tournament ends. Published Death in a Green Jacket in 2008. Foloowed by Death from the Claret Jug...last summer!!
So, yeah, its a slow process that can't really be speeded up. The Muse decides how many pages a day get written.
The good (?) news is my US Open title (An Open Case of Death) is a little over half done. But it's set at Pebble Beach, where this year's Open will be played, so I'm afraid I'm gonna miss the deadline!
Not worried about dying, though I am no spring chicken. Just keep keepin' on!
You know what's better than the Caro books on LBJ?
The Pat Buchanan books on Nixon.
They are outstanding. I'm a bit biased, though. I have a soft spot for Nixon. I think he was right about opening China, and the Conservatives were proven dead wrong. But, yeah, he was a paranoid weasel on other stuff.
The Pat Buchanan books on Nixon.
I also have them on audio and have listened to them several times.
wouldn't it be something (scary!) if, sometime in the future...
Hillary Clinton got her own Caro?
who wouldn't want to read about HER path to power, and means of ascent ??
did moderation go away? Or was that the fastest moderation, ever?
Caro does not find that LBJ was behind the assassination, but reading the book, I sure felt suspicious that he was.
I respect Caro's finding. He's studied LBJ in great depth and I don't doubt that his primary motivation is getting at the truth. But Caro, in his 4 books, portrays a man who would do just about anything to become president. And Johnson knew that, after becoming VP, the most likely scenario for attaining the presidency would be if JFK died during his first term.
@ Althouse - Chemical Engineers are robust haters of Democrats!
@ Michael K - W.E.B Griffin! Let's drink some Famous Grouse, blast some Japs with a Tommy gun and screw some nurses!
@ Everyone - Martin is NEVER going to finish Song of Fire and Ice. NEVER. The story got way out of control.
Johnson knew that, after becoming VP, the most likely scenario for attaining the presidency would be if JFK died during his first term.
It's an interesting coincidence that Life Magazine had an editorial meeting to finalize their issue on Johnson's corruption on November 22, 1963. When the news from Dallas arrived during a lunch break the afternoon session was cancelled and the issue was never published.
Oso, WEB Griffin had some really good female characters. Aunt Carolyn is a favorite of many readers and I've seen wishes that there was a subsequent book that followed up the story.
@ Everyone - Martin is NEVER going to finish Song of Fire and Ice. NEVER. The story got way out of control.
I know!! It is like what seemed like a good idea in the beginning and then you realized that you have created an out of control monster. Tiger by the tail.
What was a fun and challenging task, creating a whole world of people, plots, mythology has now become one giant f^cking chore. He gave birth to this book series/child and now probably wants to murder it.
Fascinating topic and good comments. I read books 2 and 4. Found each to be excellent.
Ann's hatred of Johnson is interesting. I'm not sure why she hates him. He was great on civil rights and awful on Vietnam. I guess she can't get Vietnam and his personality defects out of her head.
Johnson apparently was a highly damaged and awful human being, but such a huge political figure from about 1954 until 1968. The passage of power book that included the JFK assassination was excellent. Johnson was about to exposed as a crook and dumped by Kennedy, but the media held back on exposing him after the assassination.
I did not get the impression Caro thought Johnson was responsible for killing Kennedy, but I did get the impression he would have killed Kennedy if he thought he could have gotten away with it. I know of no potentially credible basis for linking Johnson to Oswald. I think once he got over the shock, Johnson probably was delighted Kennedy had been killed. And I think his acceptance of the VP slot ni 1960 primarily was because it increased his chance to be president; he calculated that about 20% of presidents had died in office.
Book four was excellent in demonstrating that Kennedy picked him because he concluded that he needed him to win the presidency. The book also demonstrated that Kennedy was correct. Johnson was instrumental in Kennedy being elected.
If not for Vietnam, he probably would be considered a great president.
Among the many fascinating aspects of Johnson, he was a pre-cursor of the damaged but hugely ambitious person being elected president: Nixon, Clinton, maybe Obama (although he either overcame the damage of his early life or totally hid it), and now Trump. How do these guys become president?
Final thought. It is a shame Caro did not get to 1964 to 1968 until so late in life. Maybe he still will produce another great book, but more likely it will suffer due to his old age. The shame is that these four years were the most historically consequential of Johnson's life. I wish he would have got to them sooner.
Sorry about the length of this post (like Caro, I say too much). Great topic.
the interesting thing about Johnson, was he had tried to avoid Vietnam from dien bien phu, the opening of that lost command film, to 1964, the diem coup that moyar points out as perhaps the most catastrophic policy decision was already in the past, it created this musical chair arrangement of puppets unresponsive to the people, lucein conein, probably regreted putting that in motion, as it was sparing Ellsberg, and not helming Watergate mission, instead he became the godfather of the dea,
The Diem coup was before JFK was killed.
I did get the impression he would have killed Kennedy if he thought he could have gotten away with it.
My dad's cousin from Amarillo essentially said that in Dallas in public soon after 11/22 and was investigated by the SS.
My memory of Johnson's presidency was from Laugh In: LBJ & Lady Bird and some kids in bed "It's with a heavy heart....that I ask you....to remove your football....from my pajamas.
Ditto of Chuck about Brian Lamb. Understated, not underrated.
Through intermediaries, I commissioned Mozart to write a Requiem to commemorate the recent passing of my wife. He was a young buck, but talented, and, as part of the deal, he was to make no copies of the work, and I would conduct the first performance so that everyone would think that I wrote the damned thing.
God, he was slow! At the same time, he was writing a couple of bullshit operas, something about a flute. But he was young, and I thought it was a safe bet. He got a couple of the good parts done and had sketched out some others. I was going to look very cool standing up there with my baton.
I held back half the money in the hope that he would crack the whip and git 'er done, but he went to Prague to open that opera about the guy from the Godfather that he worked on instead of my project, and.....I dunno...that assclown Salieri maybe poisoned his ass. Christ on a cracker!
So he croaked at age 35 before I could finish it. I mean, before he could finish it. And then that other assclown, Süssmayr, jumped in and supposedly finished it based on the sketches before i could take the credit. I can't even listen to it now. Mozart fucked me good.
- Count Franz von Walsegg
btw the whole Salieri/Mozart feud was urban legend,
yes, it was already baked in the cake, Johnson as frank underwood, was suggested in macbird, that young Stacey keach portrayed in the late 60s, he portrayed a remarkably spry vesco, in last week's blacklist,
@ Michael K - No, no, no! I like drinking Famous Grouse and screwing nurses! Never got to blast Japs with a Tommy gun, but still, two out of three.
A friend knew griffin, when he lived in argentina, the hunting party was the closest to a bio, with picaresque elements delivered a few years ago, the honor series was my favorite, the police series got silly after a while, matt payne is still in his mid 30s, when he should be in his 50s,
Even though I came to phillip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series just in the last few years, I will miss his work, the last one comes out this year.
The last which he was in the final stage, goes back to the beginning in 1928.
Talking about JFK's heath in 1960 is interesting given that LBJ had a massive heart attack when he was 50, and probably would've died if he hadn't been close to Walter Reed and good medical care. He quit smoking, and watched his diet from then on, but he still died at 65 of heart disease.
"they were adamant about what a dishonest, vile politician LBJ was."
My mother thought he was crude and weird. She didn't like his picking up dogs by their ears on TV - or showing his scars to reporters.
Wait...this isn't about GRRM?
I got through the spaceborn counterpart to got. The expanse, which is written by two of his collaborators at least till volume 3.
I was, along with many others, really hoping for Jerry Pournelle to to finish book 4 in the Janissaries series. Alas, he did not.
LBJ had a massive heart attack when he was 50,
The refrain all through Caro's books is:"Too Long! Too Long!"
All the males in Johnson's family died WAY early, and LBJ was convinced that whatever Path he took, it had to be a short path; because he felt/knew that he wouldn't live long
Anything was justified, if it would make the timetable fit
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