Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician

Morris ( Haig ) is the first biographer to provide such an intimate close-up of Nixon's early years: his relationship with his parents and siblings; his fledgling career as a lawyer; his service as a Navy officer in the Pacific. His courtship of Patricia Ryan, whom he married in 1940, is covered at length along with a revealing analysis of her influence on the future president. The balance of this engrossing book concerns four major events during Nixon's initial rise to power--his election to the House of Representatives, his emergence as a national figure during the Alger Hiss-Whittaker Chambers affair, his 1950 Red-smear campaign against Helen Gahagan Douglas and election to the Senate, his nomination as Eisenhower's running mate in the 1952 presidential campaign. Morris concludes this major biography with a detailed account of the circumstances surrounding the infamous ``Checkers'' speech, which saved the vice-presidential candidate from political oblivion. 75,000 first printing; $100,000 ad/promo. (Nov.)