Much of the time was spent poring over Truman’s voluminous personal letters and diary, which McCullough said provided an honest look at Truman’s thinking and personality. It took 10 years to complete the biography (“I wouldn’t have done it if I had known,” McCullough said). And he treated people in a way that people ought to be treated.” “This is an extremely, profoundly American story … the fact that this man also turned out be exactly what was needed in a very difficult, tense, dangerous time and kept his head and values through it all and made by and large the right decisions when they needed to be made.
I wanted to write the book about his life,” McCullough said. But that was not why I wanted to write the book. “I think he’s one of the best presidents we ever had. McCullough said he soon became convinced that Truman was a “terrific subject.” Others at the lunch were enthusiastic, so McCullough did some initial research at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, and reached out to Truman’s daughter to see if she’d be cooperative. “I haven’t the faintest idea why I said that,” McCullough recalled. Then he heard himself suggest Truman instead. McCullough responded that he’d spent enough time with the Roosevelts. McCullough had just completed a biography of Theodore Roosevelt in 1982 when his editor suggested over lunch that he write a book about Franklin Roosevelt. “He came from what would today be considered a modest or obscure background and was thrown into some difficult situations that many of us would have trouble coping with and he measured up - and then some.” “I particularly welcome the chance to speak about him now because I think he represents a kind of American quality that we need to be reminded of and keep alive,” McCullough said in an interview with The Palm Beach Post last week.
0 kommentar(er)
