Why am I publishing these random recollections toward a memoir?
January 21, 2019 12:38 PM   Subscribe

Robert Caro on doing history. Archives, friends, patience, moving house, family, not embarrassing Lady Bird Johnson, the joy of documents, and the power of SU. (SLNewYorker) (Previously on MetaFilter)
posted by doctornemo (8 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
I just need him to stay alive long enough to finish opus: The Years of Lyndon Johnson [wiki]. I'm slowly picking away at these history books and he writes in such a way that he makes what you might assume to be uninteresting things, quite the opposite.
posted by Fizz at 12:50 PM on January 21, 2019 [3 favorites]


Seven years since Passage of Power. Please oh please.
posted by JamesBay at 1:14 PM on January 21, 2019


As a proud owner of a worn copy of The Power Broker, I can confirm that reading Robert Caro's writing is an exercise in pure joy. I'm so glad that he's still at it.
posted by intermod at 1:22 PM on January 21, 2019 [6 favorites]


I’m also anxiously awaiting Volume 5! I vividly remember the summer about a dozen years ago when I discovered the first volume in a used bookstore—I looked forward every day to being able to sit out on my patio and “spending some time with Lyndon Johnson.” All four of the current volumes are on their own special spot on one of my bookcases.

I snagged an advance copy of Caro’s new book “Working”—due out this spring and which I think this article may have been excerpted from— and I can’t wait to dig into it.
posted by bookmammal at 1:34 PM on January 21, 2019 [2 favorites]


LBJ: So leave me at least two and a half, three inches in the back where I can let them out or take them up. And make these a half an inch bigger in the waist. And make the pockets at least an inch longer, my money, my knife, everything falls out - wait just a minute.

Operator: Would you hold on a minute please?

[conversation on hold for two minutes]
posted by clavdivs at 1:35 PM on January 21, 2019 [2 favorites]


not embarrassing Lady Bird Johnson

Bio of Alice Glass.
posted by pracowity at 4:10 AM on January 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


This is a fantastic piece. But holy crap, I get scared when he says he's several years from finishing the fifth volume. Work faster, man!

Caro's writing makes me so thrilled in how it bursts with facts and quotes and observations, how it simply and effectively states its case. I am re-reading "Master of the Senate," and I think if I read a few pages of his books every day, not only would I not run out of material for years, I would always be able to revisit that happy place.

Seriously, if you've never read anything of his, do it!

[bookmammal, you have an advance? so jealous!!!!]
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 7:41 PM on January 23, 2019 [1 favorite]


Yeah—one of the excellent perks of working in a bookstore! I’m hoping to start it this weekend.
posted by bookmammal at 3:41 PM on January 24, 2019 [1 favorite]


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