Lady Bird and Lyndon

Starred review from October 19, 2015
The spouses of the world's most influential movers and shakers rarely receive similar attention to their lives, regardless of the influence they may have had, but biographer Caroli (First Ladies: Martha Washington to Michelle Obama and The Roosevelt Women) bucks the trend with this enticing and fun examination of Claudia Alta Taylor "Lady Bird" Johnson. The ascendance of Lyndon B. Johnson. to the White House has been dissected and criticized since he reached the office. He was known for being rude to his closest associates, ridiculing his opponents, and blowing up on his staff. Caroli posits that if it hadn't been for his wife cleaning up his messes, L.B.J. would never have reached such political heights. Johnson was born in Karnack, Tex., to an abusive businessman of a father and a closed-off mother. Being brought up in such a tumultuous household taught Johnson ambition and drive, qualities that later would prove invaluable. As Caroli tells it, she was the real driving force behind every ally L.B.J. ever gained, and she ran interference for him with the press. Johnson changed the role of First Lady forever, and Caroli's well-researched work gives readers insight into that shift. Agent: Susan Rabiner, Susan Rabiner Literary Agency.

June 15, 2015

Some folks say that Lyndon Baines Johnson married Lady Bird for her money and treated her badly. But not Caroli, who here portrays Lady Bird as a tough political wife, calling key donors, mobilizing campaign teams, helping with strategy, and cajoling Johnson out of his periodic funks while blithely ignoring his affairs because she ultimately felt in control. As the author of The Roosevelt Women and First Ladies: Martha Washington to Michelle Obama, Caroli knows the territory.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2015

Caroli (First Ladies) fills out the portrait of a pragmatic political partnership emphasizing Lady Bird Johnson (1912-2007) through many letters unavailable to researchers until 2013, using analysis by historians and details of important face-to-face, email, and telephone interviews with those who understood the dynamics of the marriage of Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird. Key phrase endnotes prevent the interruption of the narrative for general readers and provide sources for scholars. While other biographers have noted that the surprisingly despondent and self-pitying Lyndon needed the assurance of other women, Caroli discerns how only "Bird" (the term used throughout) could supply the gentle guidance and practical sense that he needed to succeed. The author frankly acknowledges Bird's unqualified devotion to her husband, often to the neglect of their two daughters; her coping mechanism of ignoring or rationalizing affront; and the political accusations of favorable treatment regarding her radio enterprises. VERDICT Caroli's suggestion and amplification of a virtual pact teased out of Lyndon and Bird's correspondence during a very brief courtship frames the story of this alliance. Recommended for history buffs and devotees of human behavior. [See Prepub Alert, 5/17/15.]--Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., Lib. of Congress, Washington, DC

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2015
A touching, sympathetic portrait of a successful marriage despite the agony and the stress, emphasizing Lady Bird Johnson's spectacular inner grit.As an accomplished biographer of several works on presidential wives (The Roosevelt Women, 1998, etc.), Caroli does an impressive job refuting the "doormat" reputation of a humiliated wife to a coarse, philandering Texan by underscoring the symbiotic relationship that mutually sustained the couple through their whole lives. The only daughter born to a cultured, troubled gentlewoman who died early from mysterious circumstances and a larger-than-life, self-made businessman, Claudia Taylor, aka Lady Bird (1912-2007), learned a great deal from her pragmatic, number-crunching father-namely, to be self-sufficient and unafraid to take risks. Meeting former Texas schoolteacher Lyndon Johnson and then running Texas Congressman Richard Kleberg's Washington office, in 1934, Lady Bird resisted being swept off her feet by the blustering, ambitious young man, who pressured her into marriage, sensing she had the "emotional ballast he needed to achieve his ambition." Indeed, the leitmotiv here is that Lady Bird provided the necessary counterbalance to Johnson's often overweening narcissism, which revealed itself in abusive, self-pitying outbursts that only she could smooth out. His outsized ambition in Congress and the Senate allowed her a place at the table, and she became a highly effective political tool for her husband's career. Moreover, she used her business acumen to take part in a series of forward-seeing investments in radio and TV in the 1940s that made the couple rich. Caroli creates a vibrant portrait of a first lady who liked campaigning and learned how to speak publicly and effectively. Once her husband became vice president, she teamed up with Jackie Kennedy to shine as a political spouse when her husband was floundering. Unlike Bess Truman or Mamie Eisenhower, Lady Bird was not about to keep her mouth shut, turning her husband's chronic philandering to her advantage. Well done. An engaging dual biography of a most intriguing power couple.

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