Robert Caro's fourth LBJ book coming out in May, 2012

[Guest Robert Morrow]

APNewsBreak: Caro’s fourth LBJ book coming in May

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP5b3c3fcacee848a9a8f9891bcc7ec0e1.html#printMode

Well, it looks like Caro is blowing it big time. Caro has made some major contributions to understanding Lyndon Johnson, but if he can’t figure out the JFK assassination was a full blown coup d’etat engineered by Lyndon Johnson, Texas oil men and elements of CIA/military, then he ain’t much. Especially after all that has come out over the past 48 years.

As far as I know, Caro has never attended a JFK assassination conference over the past 30+ years. That is too bad because he would have learned a lot if he did. I do know his wife Ina, his top researcher, bought the book The Men on the Sixth Floor by Glen Sample and Mark Collum. They do have the book Texas in the Morning by Madeleine Duncan Brown.

As far as I know, Robert Caro never ONCE had a sit down interview with Madeleine Duncan Brown. That is inexcusable; it is not like she was not available. There are JFK assassination researchers who have interviewed her/talked to her 30 or 40 times, pumping all sorts of useful information about Lyndon Johnson from her.

So what is Robert Caro's problem? It is called the Emporor's New Clothes condition. The entire bipartisan Republican/Democrat MSM and CFR establishement has been afflicted with it for 50 years. It is socially and professionally unacceptable to talk about the truth of the JFK assassination as a coup d'etat. Or that fact that Lyndon Johnson and the CIA were involved in it. Or that LBJ, Hoover, and Dulles covered it up. Or that Allen Dulles and his CIA cohorts may or did have a big role in the murder of JFK.

It is peer pressure exactly equivalent to the townspeople who felt COMPELLED to tell a butt naked Emporer how pretty his imaginary "new clothes" were. But a child in the crowd blurted out the truth. And a child should be able to figure out JFK was killed by a shot from the front and everyone knew it in real time. And because LBJ/Hoover/FBI/Secret Service/Dallas police/Warren Commission did not investigate this - in fact tried to cover it up - that is prima facie evidence of a coup d'etat.

NOVEMBER 1, 2011, 11:58 A.M. ET.APNewsBreak: Caro's fourth LBJ book coming in May

Associated Press

NEW YORK — The fourth of Robert A. Caro's Lyndon Johnson books, continuing one of the most acclaimed and debated biographical series in memory, is coming in May.

And a fifth volume is now planned for what Caro had intended to be a three-, then four-part story.

"The Passage of Power" will focus on the years 1958-'64, from the time he began seeking the presidency, through his years as vice president under John F. Kennedy, and to Johnson's becoming president after JFK's assassination. Caro expects the book to run about 700 pages, modest by his standards. His previous book, "Master of the Senate," topped 1,100 pages.

"Why did three volumes become four? Because I realized I didn't know how the Senate worked and instead of making it rather minor, I wanted to show how power worked in the Senate," Caro said Tuesday during a telephone interview with The Associated Press from his Manhattan office.

"What do I want to show in this volume? I wanted to show how a master of politics can pick up the reins of power in a time of great crisis and what he can do with that power and the extraordinary results Lyndon Johnson did with it."

Caro said he has already done an outline and most of the research for the presumed final volume, which would cover the rest of Johnson's presidency, and even knows the final sentence. He expects the fifth book to take two to three years.

Over the past three decades, Caro's Johnson books have received two National Book Critics Circle awards, a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize, for "Master of the Senate." The three books have sold 1.5 million copies combined and Knopf receives hundreds of emails each month asking about the last volume, according to publicity director Paul Bogaards.

Knopf plans a first printing of 300,000 copies and Bogaards said Caro will tour to promote the new book, giving fans a long-awaited chance to see him. Knopf Chairman and CEO Sonny Mehta said in a statement that "Passage of Power" was a "riveting look at a pivotal period in our nation's history."

"You do not give a great biographer a timetable," Mehta said. "You let them do their work, and in due course, publish it. This has been our approach with Caro from the outset. The result has been three signature works, and now this fourth, which I immediately recognized as a stand-alone book and insisted that we had to publish next year. There will be a fifth volume, though again, we have no timetable for it, only the expectation that it will be as good as the first four."

Publishing has changed dramatically since "Master of the Senate" was released in 2002, and the historian's new book will be his first to be published simultaneously in hardcover and electronic format. On Nov. 23, volumes I and II — "The Path to Power" and "Means of Ascent" — will finally be available as e-books. ("Master of the Senate" already can be downloaded.)

"You want the books to go on," said Caro, who personally favors paper. "And I realize that this generation, a lot of it, and the generation after that is going to be reading in digital form."

Caro's appeal reaches to Washington itself, where Johnson's omnipotence now seems unthinkable. According to Ron Suskind's best-selling "Confidence Men," Democratic senators read Caro's books as they attempted to pass health care legislation in 2009 and Rep. Barney Frank consulted "Master of the Senate" as he urged fellow Democrats to support new financial regulation.

Meanwhile, Caro has risen from pariah among Johnson supporters to the former president's definitive chronicler. "Means of Ascent," published in 1990, was an account so harsh of Johnson's 1948 election to the U.S. Senate that former LBJ aide Jack Valenti accused Caro of despising his subject. Lady Bird Johnson, LBJ's widow, stopped granting him interviews. For years, Caro was treated coldly at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum in Austin, Texas. The library limited his access to materials and didn't invite him as a guest speaker. His books were unavailable at the museum store.

But while "Means of Ascent" presented Johnson as boorish and unscrupulous, "Master of the Senate" showed Johnson as a singularly forceful and ingenious majority leader, with stirrings of idealism, as he miraculously pushed through the first major civil rights bill since Reconstruction. Valenti and other Johnson insiders warmed to Caro and agreed to talk. Caro has since spoken at the Johnson center, where his books are now sold and the historian's requests are duly granted.

For LBJ, the Caro books are a narrative of political power gained and lost. For Caro, they're a story of time. The 76-year-old former Newsday investigative reporter was around 40 when he started the Johnson series in the mid-1970s, soon after winning the Pulitzer for "The Power Broker," his Dickensian epic about New York's master builder, Robert Moses. Johnson had died just a couple of years earlier and virtually everyone in his administration, and in Kennedy's, was still around.

Caro has conducted countless interviews, but now he seeks survivors. So many have passed away. Just since "Master of the Senate," such family members and top officials as Valenti, Sen. Edward Kennedy, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and Theodore Sorensen have died.

"Every time I walk home at night, that hits me in the face. My apartment is on Central Park West and my office is in Columbus Circle, so on my way home I pass Ted Sorensen's house," Caro says. "I used to be able to pick up the phone and call (LBJ aide) Horace Busby and ask him, 'Where was Johnson sitting? On the sofa or the rocking chair?' So often I reach for the phone these days and there's nobody to call."

Edited November 1, 2011 by Robert Morrow

[Shepard G. Montgomery]

Great post, Robert! Thanks for the alert!

[Ron Ecker]

I don't think Caro needed to talk to Madeleine Brown to figure out there was a conspiracy and that LBJ had to be involved at least in the cover-up.

My guess is that Caro is more interested in selling his books than in getting to the truth about the JFK assassination. He doesn't want to be savaged by reviewers in the mainstream media. It's bad for library sales.

[John Simkin]

NOVEMBER 1, 2011, 11:58 A.M. ET.APNewsBreak: Caro's fourth LBJ book coming in May

Associated Press

NEW YORK — The fourth of Robert A. Caro's Lyndon Johnson books, continuing one of the most acclaimed and debated biographical series in memory, is coming in May.

And a fifth volume is now planned for what Caro had intended to be a three-, then four-part story.

"The Passage of Power" will focus on the years 1958-'64, from the time he began seeking the presidency, through his years as vice president under John F. Kennedy, and to Johnson's becoming president after JFK's assassination. Caro expects the book to run about 700 pages, modest by his standards. His previous book, "Master of the Senate," topped 1,100 pages.

"Why did three volumes become four? Because I realized I didn't know how the Senate worked and instead of making it rather minor, I wanted to show how power worked in the Senate," Caro said Tuesday during a telephone interview with The Associated Press from his Manhattan office.

"What do I want to show in this volume? I wanted to show how a master of politics can pick up the reins of power in a time of great crisis and what he can do with that power and the extraordinary results Lyndon Johnson did with it."

Caro said he has already done an outline and most of the research for the presumed final volume, which would cover the rest of Johnson's presidency, and even knows the final sentence. He expects the fifth book to take two to three years.

Over the past three decades, Caro's Johnson books have received two National Book Critics Circle awards, a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize, for "Master of the Senate." The three books have sold 1.5 million copies combined and Knopf receives hundreds of emails each month asking about the last volume, according to publicity director Paul Bogaards.

Knopf plans a first printing of 300,000 copies and Bogaards said Caro will tour to promote the new book, giving fans a long-awaited chance to see him. Knopf Chairman and CEO Sonny Mehta said in a statement that "Passage of Power" was a "riveting look at a pivotal period in our nation's history."

"You do not give a great biographer a timetable," Mehta said. "You let them do their work, and in due course, publish it. This has been our approach with Caro from the outset. The result has been three signature works, and now this fourth, which I immediately recognized as a stand-alone book and insisted that we had to publish next year. There will be a fifth volume, though again, we have no timetable for it, only the expectation that it will be as good as the first four."

Publishing has changed dramatically since "Master of the Senate" was released in 2002, and the historian's new book will be his first to be published simultaneously in hardcover and electronic format. On Nov. 23, volumes I and II — "The Path to Power" and "Means of Ascent" — will finally be available as e-books. ("Master of the Senate" already can be downloaded.)

"You want the books to go on," said Caro, who personally favors paper. "And I realize that this generation, a lot of it, and the generation after that is going to be reading in digital form."

Caro's appeal reaches to Washington itself, where Johnson's omnipotence now seems unthinkable. According to Ron Suskind's best-selling "Confidence Men," Democratic senators read Caro's books as they attempted to pass health care legislation in 2009 and Rep. Barney Frank consulted "Master of the Senate" as he urged fellow Democrats to support new financial regulation.

Meanwhile, Caro has risen from pariah among Johnson supporters to the former president's definitive chronicler. "Means of Ascent," published in 1990, was an account so harsh of Johnson's 1948 election to the U.S. Senate that former LBJ aide Jack Valenti accused Caro of despising his subject. Lady Bird Johnson, LBJ's widow, stopped granting him interviews. For years, Caro was treated coldly at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum in Austin, Texas. The library limited his access to materials and didn't invite him as a guest speaker. His books were unavailable at the museum store.

But while "Means of Ascent" presented Johnson as boorish and unscrupulous, "Master of the Senate" showed Johnson as a singularly forceful and ingenious majority leader, with stirrings of idealism, as he miraculously pushed through the first major civil rights bill since Reconstruction. Valenti and other Johnson insiders warmed to Caro and agreed to talk. Caro has since spoken at the Johnson center, where his books are now sold and the historian's requests are duly granted.

Maybe he was waiting for Lady Bird to die before claiming that LBJ was involved in the assassination.

[Pat Speer]

NOVEMBER 1, 2011, 11:58 A.M. ET.APNewsBreak: Caro's fourth LBJ book coming in May

Associated Press

NEW YORK — The fourth of Robert A. Caro's Lyndon Johnson books, continuing one of the most acclaimed and debated biographical series in memory, is coming in May.

And a fifth volume is now planned for what Caro had intended to be a three-, then four-part story.

"The Passage of Power" will focus on the years 1958-'64, from the time he began seeking the presidency, through his years as vice president under John F. Kennedy, and to Johnson's becoming president after JFK's assassination. Caro expects the book to run about 700 pages, modest by his standards. His previous book, "Master of the Senate," topped 1,100 pages.

"Why did three volumes become four? Because I realized I didn't know how the Senate worked and instead of making it rather minor, I wanted to show how power worked in the Senate," Caro said Tuesday during a telephone interview with The Associated Press from his Manhattan office.

"What do I want to show in this volume? I wanted to show how a master of politics can pick up the reins of power in a time of great crisis and what he can do with that power and the extraordinary results Lyndon Johnson did with it."

Caro said he has already done an outline and most of the research for the presumed final volume, which would cover the rest of Johnson's presidency, and even knows the final sentence. He expects the fifth book to take two to three years.

Over the past three decades, Caro's Johnson books have received two National Book Critics Circle awards, a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize, for "Master of the Senate." The three books have sold 1.5 million copies combined and Knopf receives hundreds of emails each month asking about the last volume, according to publicity director Paul Bogaards.

Knopf plans a first printing of 300,000 copies and Bogaards said Caro will tour to promote the new book, giving fans a long-awaited chance to see him. Knopf Chairman and CEO Sonny Mehta said in a statement that "Passage of Power" was a "riveting look at a pivotal period in our nation's history."

"You do not give a great biographer a timetable," Mehta said. "You let them do their work, and in due course, publish it. This has been our approach with Caro from the outset. The result has been three signature works, and now this fourth, which I immediately recognized as a stand-alone book and insisted that we had to publish next year. There will be a fifth volume, though again, we have no timetable for it, only the expectation that it will be as good as the first four."

Publishing has changed dramatically since "Master of the Senate" was released in 2002, and the historian's new book will be his first to be published simultaneously in hardcover and electronic format. On Nov. 23, volumes I and II — "The Path to Power" and "Means of Ascent" — will finally be available as e-books. ("Master of the Senate" already can be downloaded.)

"You want the books to go on," said Caro, who personally favors paper. "And I realize that this generation, a lot of it, and the generation after that is going to be reading in digital form."

Caro's appeal reaches to Washington itself, where Johnson's omnipotence now seems unthinkable. According to Ron Suskind's best-selling "Confidence Men," Democratic senators read Caro's books as they attempted to pass health care legislation in 2009 and Rep. Barney Frank consulted "Master of the Senate" as he urged fellow Democrats to support new financial regulation.

Meanwhile, Caro has risen from pariah among Johnson supporters to the former president's definitive chronicler. "Means of Ascent," published in 1990, was an account so harsh of Johnson's 1948 election to the U.S. Senate that former LBJ aide Jack Valenti accused Caro of despising his subject. Lady Bird Johnson, LBJ's widow, stopped granting him interviews. For years, Caro was treated coldly at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum in Austin, Texas. The library limited his access to materials and didn't invite him as a guest speaker. His books were unavailable at the museum store.

But while "Means of Ascent" presented Johnson as boorish and unscrupulous, "Master of the Senate" showed Johnson as a singularly forceful and ingenious majority leader, with stirrings of idealism, as he miraculously pushed through the first major civil rights bill since Reconstruction. Valenti and other Johnson insiders warmed to Caro and agreed to talk. Caro has since spoken at the Johnson center, where his books are now sold and the historian's requests are duly granted.

Maybe he was waiting for Lady Bird to die before claiming that LBJ was involved in the assassination.

I've had similar thoughts, John, and suspect that Caro, at the very least, will depict Johnson's creation of the Warren Commission as a shrewd political move, with his own best interests at heart, as opposed to the long term interests of the country.

Edited November 3, 2011 by Pat Speer