"Time magazine, alert to the importance of Roosevelt's state of health, published an article ... and opened by quoting the New York Sun: 'Let's not be squeamish. It is convention not the constitution which forbids open comment on the possibility that a President may be succeeded by his Vice President. Six Presidents have died in office.' The New York Daily News stated it for the subway readers: 'Dewey is 42; Roosevelt is 62.'"
Jim Bishop
"FDR's Last Year: April 1944-April 1945"
When I was about 12, I discovered the writings of Jim Bishop.
My father was a professor at a small liberal arts college in central Arkansas. From time to time, I would walk from my middle school or my junior high school (both of which were only a short distance from the college campus) to his office and ride home with him.
And, on some of those occasions, I stopped off at the small on-campus bookstore to browse before continuing to my father's office.The bookstore carried all the textbooks that were required in each class that was being offered, of course, as well as a fairly wide selection of mass market hardback and paperback books — all crammed into a small store/office in what was called the "student union," although I guess, on most campuses these days, it would be called a "student commons" or "student activity center."
Small it was, but it was large enough to serve the relatively small student body.
Anyway, that was where I discovered Jim Bishop. A lone copy of his "The Day Lincoln Was Shot" was hidden behind copies of "Sounder," "Portnoy's Complaint" and "Slaughterhouse-Five." I don't recall how I found it. I just did.
I took it to the cashier, paid for it and left with my newly acquired treasure.
(I still have that book, by the way, and the price on the cover — 85 cents — testifies to how much times have changed.)
The book told the story, hour by hour, of the day that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Originally, it was published in 1955, and it paved the way for similar narratives — "The Day Christ Died" and "The Day Kennedy Was Shot" — that I read after I finished the book on Lincoln.
But those books were old news in the publishing world by the mid-1970s. You could still find them in bookstores, but they were becoming increasingly difficult to locate.
Then, in 1974, Bishop published a book that took a similar approach to historical storytelling as his books on the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations and the crucifixion — but it followed the developments of an entire year instead of a single 24-hour period.It was called "FDR's Last Year: April 1944-April 1945," and it was a huge success, a nationwide bestseller.
I bought it when it came out in paperback the following year. (I had to pay more for it than I paid for the Lincoln book — $2.45 — but that would still be a bargain compared to the price of books today.)
The book is relevant in the modern political climate, if only because, in both presidential election campaigns, the nominee of the party in power was significantly older than the nominee of the challenging party. Health was a mostly unmentioned issue.
In Roosevelt's case, health questions simply took a backseat to the role he played in leading the allied war effort. In that final year, of course, the Allies began the liberation of Europe with the invasion of Normandy in June.
But, even though big and important things were happening in the world, there were people who insisted on giving events an election-year spin.
"There were some men in high places who, ignoring the provisions of the Constitution of the United States, said that there would be no election in 1944. It is not an accident that most of the rumormongers were members of the Republican Party. Politics, a national pastime in democracies, would continue as usual. The Republican Party had been out of executive power for 12 years. Some were embittered to the point where they accused the president of staging D-Day to coincide with the Republican convention in June, and the Democratic in July. Others counseled that, as the argument against a third term had borne no elective fruit, it would be witless to fight against a fourth. The target, if FDR ran again, should be that the government was in the hands of 'tired, quarrelsome old men.'"
Jim Bishop
"FDR's Last Year: April 1944-April 1945"
In John McCain's case, the subject of his health hasn't been mentioned frequently primarily because of the media's apparent assumption that it doesn't matter because he won't win.
But if McCain surprises observers and wins the election, his health will suddenly take center stage. And it will be too late to ask questions about his vice president's experience and qualifications.
As you read Bishop's book, you become more aware of how Roosevelt's 1944 running mate, Harry Truman, was nothing more than an afterthought. Few, if any, of the voters who preferred FDR gave any thought to the possibility that Truman might become president.
The book is nothing if not a cautionary tale, although it doesn't explore the successes or failures of Truman's presidency. It only tells us, in the course of telling the story of those fateful 12 months, in which the war was won and the president died, how Truman came to be chosen for Roosevelt's ticket — and, consequently, was elected vice president.
Truman had been vice president for less than three months when he was summoned to the White House in April 1945 — and was told that Roosevelt had died.As someone who has earned a degree in graduate school, I can tell you that Bishop's writing is not perfect — from the perspective of historical research, his books lack the kind of footnotes and bibliography that would be required of a graduate school history student.
Yet, The New York Times Book Review said, in its review of "FDR's Last Year," that Bishop possessed "the gifts of a born storyteller," and it called the book "absorbing."
That is when history is most "absorbing," in my opinion — when, as Andy Griffith (speaking as TV's Sheriff Andy Taylor) said, a gifted storyteller "puts a little jam on the bread."
Even without footnotes and bibliography that would be considered adequate by academic journals, Bishop provides a lot of "jam" in "FDR's Last Year."
His book was probably more absorbing in 1974, though. The book was published nearly 30 years after Franklin Roosevelt's death, and many of the people who read it at that time were old enough to remember FDR and his presidency.
Today, Roosevelt has been gone for more than 60 years, and the majority of the people who were old enough to remember even the wartime FDR (never mind the younger FDR who guided America through the Depression) are no longer with us. For most of the people who would read Bishop's book today, FDR is an historical figure, someone from the history books, like Lincoln and George Washington.
As I understand it, "FDR's Last Year," like most of Bishop's books, is out of print now. Some bookstores may be able to locate and special-order a copy for you. And you might be able to find a copy at a used book store.
If you find a copy, get it and read it.
