I’ve subscribed and canceled my subscription to the New York Review of Books approximately 10 times over the years. I am currently in a subscribed phase of the cycle. One attraction is the rich archive available to subscribers.
Yesterday the editors noted in their weekly email that it was the 115th anniversary of LBJ’s birth: “Johnson was, of course, a frequent subject in the magazine, but it was in the decades after his death, with the publication of each of the first four volumes of Robert Caro’s biography of LBJ, that the scope of his ambition and the magnitude of his presidency came into focus.” In honor of the occasion the editors freed up each of the four reviews they have published of Caro’s epic biography:
• Murray Kempton, “The Great Lobbyist” (1983) (the NYRB email notes: “Kempton found that Caro, like Theodore Dreiser, himself born on August 27, was well-suited to chronicling the ‘catalogue of rascalities’ of the rich and powerful in America”)
• Garry Wills, “Monstre Désacré” (1990)
• Marshall Frady, “The Big Guy” (2002)
• Garry Wills, “America’s Nastiest Blood Feud” (2012)
My favorite review of the Caro volumes was published by the New Criterion in 2012. By the late Joe Rago, the review is “LBJ’s ruthless cynicism.” However, it is behind the New Criterion paywall.
Caro is now 87. We hopefully await the completion of the biography in Caro’s projected volume 5. In the meantime, I thought readers might find one or more of the NYRB reviews of interest.
CORRECTION: Too late to do any good except to correct myself, I note that I misunderstood the NYRB email. The four NYRB reviews are behind the the magazine’s paywall. I also note that Joe Rago’s excellent New Criterion review is generally accessible. I regret the errors and any related inconvenience to readers.
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