As Wilson’s health declined, his post-Presidential popularity rose. Crowds greeted him whenever he appeared in public, as on Armistice Day 1921.
On Wilson’s sixty-fifth birthday, servant Isaac Scott helped the hemiplegic ex-President.
On special occasions, Wilson offered a few words from his doorstep—greeting women from the Pan-American Conference in April 1922; and again (with Edith at his side) on Armistice Day, seven months later.
At age sixty-seven, on December 28, 1923.
“I am a broken piece of machinery,” Wilson uttered shortly before dying on February 3, 1924. His casket was taken from S Street to the National Cathedral, where he remains buried.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In 1965, when I was in the eleventh grade, my mother handed me a copy of Gene Smith’s When the Cheering Stopped, which examined Woodrow Wilson’s last years and Edith Wilson’s role in the White House after her husband’s stroke. I have been reading about Wilson ever since, but I kept feeling that I had never read a book that captured the essence of his character. From such feelings spring new biographies.
By the time I began writing this book, my subject had been dead more than seventy-five years, and there were few people alive who had known him. In 2001, however, I was fortunate enough to spend a beautiful day on Martha’s Vineyard with his grandson the Very Reverend Francis B. Sayre, Jr., former Dean of the National Cathedral and, at that time, the only living person to have been born in the White House. Then in his mid-eighties, he remained a dynamic and articulate presence, who readily offered stories and observations of his mother and her sisters and their father. After Dean Sayre’s death in 2008, the family discovered a mother lode of papers—hundreds of theretofore undisclosed personal letters—which Dean Sayre’s son Thomas allowed me to mine for this book. Utmost thanks to Thomas H. Sayre for his trust and instant friendship.
I was also privileged to meet on several occasions with the late Cary T. Grayson, Jr., son of President Wilson’s physician and as elegant a gentleman as I have ever known. He too shared not only his reminiscences and some of his family’s lore but also an unexamined trove of Grayson family archives, which—like the Sayre Papers—brought countless personal details to my portrait of Wilson. I am sorry he did not live to see the book to which he contributed so generously. I am grateful as well to Cary Grayson, Jr.’s wife, Priscilla, for her gracious spirit.
In 1973 I had the good fortune to be invited to tea—“or something more important”—at the Washington, D.C., home of Alice Roosevelt Longworth, whom I was then interviewing for my biography of Maxwell Perkins. During the course of our conversation, I had expressed my interest in Woodrow Wilson; and her detestation of the man was still great enough for her to extend a standing invitation to tea whenever I was in town—primarily, I believe, so that she could ridicule Wilson (and me) to the delight of the other guests I encountered during my three subsequent visits. Although writing a book about Woodrow Wilson had not yet entered my thoughts, I knew enough to preserve her comments.
Because the research for this book was mostly archival, I depended on the expertise of many librarians and assistants at several institutions. Peter F. deVaux was the first to tell me of an ardent group of citizens then in the process of establishing a Presidential library in Staunton, Virginia—at Wilson’s birthplace; and as the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library took shape, I came to work with a highly dedicated corps of people there. I am extremely grateful to Founding Executive Director Eric Vettel and Heidi Hackford, who helped me break ground on my research, and to the library and museum’s current president, Don W. Wilson. Other faithful friends of this book in Staunton include Peggy Dillard, William R. Browning, Joel Hodson, Pamela Dixon, and Linda McNeil, who gave me my first tour of the Wilson birthplace.
Davidson College alumnus A. Alex Porter paved the way for my 2006 visit to his alma mater. My thanks to him and the school’s former president Robert “Bobby” Vagt, who graciously walked me through the campus and its history. Jan Blodgett provided great assistance at the Davidson College Library; and David McClintock, Mark Grotjohn, and J. Gill Holland further enhanced my visit there.
My thanks to John M. Sherrer III at the Historic Columbia Foundation in South Carolina and Erick Montgomery, Executive Director of Historic Augusta, Inc. I am grateful to Steve Oney for introducing me to the late Edwin J. Cashin, a scholar and lifelong student of Georgia history, who proudly guided me from one end of Augusta to the other, leaving no artifact unturned.
The spirit of Woodrow Wilson has never left his house at 2340 S Street in Washington, in large measure because of the dedicated people who keep the flame burning there. Especially helpful in my research over the last decade were former director Frank J. Aucella, John Powell, Claudia Bismark, and Carter Cunningham. Recently, Sarah Andrews and the House’s new director, Robert A. Enholm, have already assisted me beyond measure.
I am grateful to the staffs of the Newark Public Library, the Library of the University of Virginia, and the Library of Congress for their friendliness and efficiency. Special thanks to Donald A. Ritchie, Historian of the United States Senate, who provided a fascinating tour of the President’s Room and much of the rest of the Capitol.
Princeton University is the heart of all Wilson research, and I am grateful to University Librarian Karin Trainer, Associate University Librarian Ben Primer, and Curator of Manuscripts Donald Skemer for always welcoming me back to their reading rooms. My friend Daniel J. Linke, the University Archivist and Curator of Public Policy Papers, made my days in the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library as pleasant as they were productive. Great thanks to him and the team at Mudd, especially Tad Bennicoff, John DeLooper, Christine Kitto, Amanda Pike, and Marlis Hinckley, Class of 2016.
While researching and teaching at Princeton during the 2007–8 school year, I was surrounded by an extraordinary community of scholars and staff. For countless kindnesses, thanks to my friends in the Joseph Henry House—Cass Garner, Lin DeTitta, and Christine Hollendonner. Several others made my time in Princeton pass all too quickly—most especially Diane and H. Kirk Unruh, Jr., Carol and François Rigolot, Susan and Toby Levy, the late Charles Ryskamp, and Wilson expert Robert Cullinane. Jeff Nunokawa proved to be a terrible landlord and a boon companion. I have been further privileged to count as friends two of Wilson’s most inspiring successors in Nassau Hall, Presidents Harold T. Shapiro and Shirley M. Tilghman.
All Wilson studies in the last half century stand on the foundation of work produced by Arthur S. Link, who collected, edited, and annotated The Papers of Woodrow Wilson. These volumes are a monument not only to Wilson but to historical research. Other Wilson scholars whose works provided particularly valuable information and insights include James Axtell, Ray Stannard Baker, John Morton Blum, Kendrick A. Clements, John Milton Cooper, Jr., Thomas J. Knock, and W. Barksdale Maynard.
Over the course of this long project, my agent, Lynn Nesbit, has sorted out any number of issues, always with grace and aplomb. I value her friendship as much as her representation.
A number of other friends have provided great emotional support during the thirteen years it took to complete this book. Their constant vigilance, even when I was off in another century, sustained me more than they know. My heartfelt thanks to Greg Berlanti, Tony Bill, Gary Cohen, Kevin Lake, Eric Lax, Nancy Olson Livingston, John Logan, Bryan Lourd, Elsie and McKinley C. McAdoo, and Douglas Stumpf. I am sorry two friends who spurred me on for so many years departed before they could see the results: Casey Ribicoff, who never failed to ask provocative questions; and Gore Vidal, who never failed to give provocative answers, challenging almost everything Wilson had said or done. Fellow biographer David T. Michaelis has been my ideal reader for the last few decades; and his steadfast faith in this book has been a continual source of inspiration. He has long proved himself the very best of friends.
In my experience, the greatest scholars are also
the most generous. That is certainly the case with Alan Brinkley, to whom many of us have turned for counsel since our undergraduate days. I am beholden to him for his critical reading of this manuscript, as he once again demonstrated that he is both a friend and historian of the highest order.
My deepest regret is that my father, Richard Berg, did not live to see this book. He was no great fan of history; but, as a motion-picture writer and producer, he loved good drama. He watched over every scene herein. My brothers—Jeffrey, Tony, and Rick—all augmented their traditional support, compensating for his absence.
In an age of great transition in the publishing industry, I continued to work with a team of people at G. P. Putnam’s Sons who remain extremely dedicated to books, whatever form they take. Carole Baron, Marilyn Ducksworth, Mih-Ho Cha, and the late Dan Harvey nurtured this book at the beginning; and in recent years, I have been fortunate enough to work with Susan Petersen Kennedy, who allowed the book to progress according to its own calendar. Ivan Held has taken a deep personal interest in the work of not only the author but of all who have had a hand in the making of this book. I have had the good fortune to work once again with the same superb editorial team that I encountered fifteen years ago, with a few new additions. My greatest thanks to Neil S. Nyren for his sharp insights and his gentle humor. Thanks also to Sara Minnich, Claire Winecoff for her meticulous care, and, most especially, Scott Auerbach. Catharine Lynch and Meredith Dros have overseen this volume’s production, making the most of the very talented Claire Vaccaro’s design. Kate Stark, Alexis Welby, and Kelly Welsh have cheerfully ushered the author into the twenty-first century. My friend Ian Chapman has monitored every detail of this book’s British publication.
This book is dedicated with boundless love and gratitude to three people. Kevin McCormick has been my partner through four books now, but I have never relied on his devotion more than during “the Wilson administration.” He has consistently offered support of every kind before I needed to ask for it; and he helped hammer out most of the thoughts in this book.
While my father got me interested in writing, my mother, Barbara Berg, got me interested in reading—especially nonfiction, specifically about the early part of the twentieth century and Woodrow Wilson. Her unceasing curiosity and indomitable energy never cease to amaze and inspire.
Phyllis Grann is the most gifted editor I know. She has perfect pitch and the rare ability to focus on details without losing sight of the big picture. Although she has left Putnam, she was the first person there with whom I discussed the idea of writing about Wilson, and she has faithfully remained this book’s editor and godmother.
The moment after I had first mentioned Woodrow Wilson to her, Phyllis asked how I ever got interested in him in the first place. I told her about that book my mother had pressed into my hands when I had been in high school. Phyllis went silent for a moment . . . and then told me that in 1964, when she was a secretary at William Morrow & Company, her boss, Lawrence Hughes, had said, “Phyllis, you say you want to be an editor. Let’s see what you can do with this.” He set down on her desk the manuscript of When the Cheering Stopped.
I think Wilson would have called that Providence.
—A.S.B.
Los Angeles
April 2013
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