Want to be president? Start reading
The influence of books on the American presidency has a long and distinguished history, as this autumn鈥檚 readers are learning in three new biographies of the nation鈥檚 commanders-in-chief.
In The Hidden White House: Harry Truman and the Reconstruction of America鈥檚 Most Famous Residence (St. Martin鈥檚 Press, $26.99), author Robert Klara documents Truman鈥檚 oversight of a drastic renovation of the presidential mansion. In guiding the massive project, Truman drew on his extensive knowledge of history, a body of wisdom he鈥檇 accumulated as an avid reader since childhood. Klara recalls that as a boy, Truman was advised by his doctor to avoid outside sports to protect his eyes, which were considered delicate because of a structural astigmatism. 鈥淧etrified into staying indoors, Truman discovered the Independence Public Library,鈥� Klara writes. 鈥淏y the time he turned fourteen, the story goes, he had devoured all three thousand books in it.鈥�
In The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism (Simon & Schuster, $40), author Doris Kearns Goodwin notes that Roosevelt also found comfort and instruction in books as a child. Often confined because of childhood asthma, TR turned to books for consolation. 鈥淗is voracious reading gave him a rich cache of ideas for stories of his own to entertain his younger brother and sister,鈥� Goodwin tells readers. TR鈥檚 enthusiastic reading is a continual theme throughout 鈥淭he Bully Pulpit鈥� ; she notes, for example, that on a trip out West, young Roosevelt carried Leo Tolstoy鈥檚 鈥淎nna Karenina鈥� along for the ride.
Goodwin reports that President William Howard Taft鈥檚 literary taste leaned toward the novels of Anthony Trollope. 鈥淭rollope is a great favorite of mine because of the realistic every day tone which one finds in every line he writes,鈥� Taft observed in a letter.
In Wilson (Putnam, $40), a new biography of President Woodrow Wilson, author A. Scott Berg tells readers that even though Wilson was a professional academic, he also used light reading to relieve the pressures of the presidency. Shortly after taking office, Berg writes, Wilson asked 鈥渢he Librarian of Congress to keep him supplied with detective novels.鈥�
Taken together, the new books by Klara, Goodwin, and Berg give ample evidence that reading is a vital part of leading.
Danny Heitman, a columnist for The Advocate in Louisiana, is the author of 鈥淎 Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House.鈥�
