Dear Bookseller:
I have been the publisher of Publishers Weekly for more than a decade. During that time, I have met many publishers, distributors, booksellers, editors and authors; I have felt the pride of being part of an industry that educates, informs, entertains and presents great art and talent to tens of millions of readers.
The pace of publishing can be very fast, its output prodigious; season follows upon season, book after book. On occasion, I find it helpful to pause amidst this whirlwind of enterprise and take particular note of book that embodies all that is positive about this business. Our collective efforts can and do advance our people and nation towards the very essence of a truly civilized democratic society. Sometimes, a single book can do the same thing.
Robert A. Caro's Lyndon Johnson Master of the Senate is just such a book. This third volume in Caro's projected tetralogy on the life of America's 36th president is in itself a work of singular achievement. Few books have had such a testimonial import on powerful politicians, statesmen, scholars and literary critics.
The reason for its profound effect on readers is clear: the themes are grand. No internal issue is more pivotal to domestic American history then that of race and the extension of equality to all the American people. No country has successfully created a constitutional framework to govern such a large diverse nation democratically. No country of comparable size has created the governmental institutions necessary to balance the contention among states and between private and public interests. And no nation has exercised state power to even the playing field against the obstacles of class, origin and race as has the United States.
According to Caro, Lincoln preserved the union, Johnson altered its legislative institutions and extended the very promise of the nation to more people. LBJ's achievements were monumental in impact, and not easily won. Their enactment required the overhaul of almost 200 years of Senate structure and procedure and generated leadership never before exercised.
It is equally extraordinary to be able to tell such a story in a style that compels the reader to turn the page as if an epic novel was unfolding. Only an author of extraordinary gifts could have produced such a mesmerizing work. At a time when many Americans are feeling uncertain, this book gives us hope for the future. Caro has reminded us that the engine of democratic process can be used to implement true and visionary change. The book stands as a challenge to current leaders to be just as bold and courageous.
In 2004, the country should celebrate the passage of the 40th anniversary of the 1964-65 Civil Rights Act and the 50th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. Let us as an industry advance the common good and not let these important milestones pass without giving our readers the ability to comprehend and appreciate the time they are living in.
Out of a humble sense of my own responsibility to the common good, I would like to urge booksellers to handsell Caro's book for the holiday season. This is an inspirational achievement of the first magnitude.
As this issue of PW bears out, there were many wonderful and worthy books published this year (see our feature, "The Year in Books 2002," p. 28, and our children's selections, p. 38). To praise Caro is not to diminish any other book, but merely to direct those who care about the political culture in America to a glorious and important work of scholarship.
