A Short Review of Joan Mellen’s new book, “Faustian Bargains"

[Douglas Caddy]

Professor Joan Mellen’s new book, “Faustian Bargains: Lyndon Johnson and Mac Wallace and the Robber Barons of Texas,” was published on September 13.

It was immediately hailed by the usual suspects as the final word on LBJ’s historical connections to Mac Wallace, Billie Sol Estes, U.S. Marshal Clint Peoples and fingerprint expert Nathan Darby, among others.

The final word? Not so fast.

On September 23, The New York Times’ article on literary agent Robert Gottlieb disclosed that his client, Robert Caro, is working on the fifth installment in his biography of LBJ for which he had previously been awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

So Joan Mellen’s new book is not the final word.

Because Caro is notorious for being laborious in his research and writing, his authoritative final word on this topic may years away.

This is my short review of Joan Mellen’s new book. My longer review will be published here in the Education Forum prior to the Lancer and JFK Assassination Conferences in Dallas in November.

Edited September 25, 2016 by Douglas Caddy