Thursday, January 31, 2008
Life of Washington by Chief Justice John Marshall (1803)
When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan by Peggy Noonan (2001)
Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes by Michael Beschloss (1997)
The Letters and Times of the Tylers by Lyon Gardiner Tyler (2006)
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt by Doris Kearns Goodwin (1994)
It’s not too popular to think of Abe Lincoln as an opportunist or Lyndon Johnson as a manic-depressive. These are just two hypotheses from the mind of Dr. Kenneth Todd, a psychiatrist and avid collector of presidential biographies, memoirs, letters and tell-alls. His favorite president is John Tyler, an underrated politician who helped annex Florida and Texas, codified the playing of “Hail to the Chief,” became the first vice president to succeed to the presidency and died in “exile” as a member of the Confederate House of Representatives in his native Virginia. From the modern era, Todd’s fascination runs to John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.
His private library contains hundreds of books—plus a growing collection of busts—and it all started as a teenager in Albuquerque, N.M., when he met JFK on a 1960 presidential campaign stop.
So has this erstwhile analyst of presidential behavior considered writing his own book? “I’ve given it a thought, but I have a very busy practice,” Todd says. “Easier said than done.”
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