And they say obscure presidents are boring! (That one was Grover Cleveland.) This winter Times Books begins publication of short (150 pages) biographies of all 42 men who have held the office of president of the United States. Even someone with a casual interest in American history should be intrigued. In such a small space, most of the dull stuff doesn’t make the cut.
We learn that John Quincy Adams was trapped into his marriage to an Englishwoman; Rutherford B. Hayes was almost succeeded by disgraced former president Ulysses S. Grant; when Ike ordered federal troops to desegregate Little Rock, Ark., schools in 1957, he was opposed by Senators Johnson and Kennedy.
The casting is inspired. General Editor Arthur Schlesinger Jr. has assigned Warren G. Harding to Watergate’s John Dean, Herbert Hoover to historian William E. Leuchtenberg and Abraham Lincoln to novelist E. L. Doctorow. William Henry Harrison is going to be a little tougher to cover. He died one month after assuming office.
