Everything’s Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King

Everything’s Eventual: 14 Dark Tales
By Stephen King
Copyright 2002

Introduction: Practicing the (Almost) Lost Art
In his fourth volume of stories, King laments the lost art of telling short stories. The market has all but died for them. The pulps are long gone. Adult magazines are all but dead with the Internet serving the porn needs of the world. King sees the emerging world of E-publishing as the only hope for the future of the short story.

Autopsy Room Four
A wealthy stock broker regains consciousness on an autopsy room table. He can’t move and apparently those who are preparing to carve him up aren’t aware he’s alive and breathing. When the pathologist examines a scar on the inside of his thigh, he finds a way to alert them.

This story is entirely interior dialogue the man has with himself about the fear of being cut open while alive and devising a means of letting those around him know he’s alive. It is a clever bit of storytelling on King’s part and it’s a great story. It was inspired by an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents where a man in a wrecked car must attract the attention of is rescuers who think him dead.

This story was made into an episode of the TNT miniseries, Nightmares and Dreamscapes. It was originally published in a limited edition anthology of King stories entitled, Six Stories.

The Man in the Black Suit
Set in 1916, a young boy goes fishing at his favorite trout stream. He is approached by a man in a dark suit and wing tip shoes. The man tells him that his mother has died. The boy flees toward home in terror.

King’s homage to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown. A simple morality tale similar to Hawthorne’s with a younger hero. Well paced with a good story.

All That You Love Will be Carried Away
A traveling salesman checks into a rural motel with plans to kill himself. He calls home and leaves reminders of several chores to be completed by his wife. He then contemplates what to do with a small notebook in which he’s collected numerous limericks and rest stop graffiti. There might be a book in it. He must decide whether to blow his brains out or stick around for the sake of that little notebook.

This is straight, mainstream fiction with a cloying poignancy. It’s also a well told tale with real bits of roadside graffiti King picked up in his own travels. The ambiguity of the main character, the reasons for his depression, and his ultimate fate make the story even better.

The Death of Jack Hamilton
This is a fictional account of the death of a real life member of the Dillinger Gang. It is a first person narrative told by Homer Van Meter, a real person who was a member of the Dillinger gang. Jack Hamilton gets shot as Dillinger and his crew flee from the feds. The crew ends up in Chicago where they lay up in a boarding house, hiding. Hamilton’s wound festers and he lapses into delirium. Van Meter provides graphic detail of Hamilton’s slow slide toward oblivion.

As one progresses through Everything’s Eventual, it’s easy to see that Stephen King has matured as a short story teller as well as a novelist. His early collections contained short stories, usually dealing with the supernatural or death. Nightmares and Dreamscapes was a mix of supernatural and mainstream stories, often over written and bloated. The Death of Jack Hamilton is a gripping, graphic account of the death of a member of one of the most notorious gangs of the Depression era. King shows that he can write historical fictional as well as tales of the supernatural.

In the Death Room
The story tells the tale of a New York Timesreporter held captive in a torture room of a South American country. He’s being interrogated about his ties to communist insurgents. He is tortured some before he manages to escape.

The story’s not-at-all veiled subtext is how we hear and grasp what we want to believe, even when it flies in the face off all circumstances presented before us. Among King’s short works, it ranks as average.

The Little Sisters of Eluria
This story is an interlude during Roland Deschain’s pursuit of Walter across the desert in the first volume of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger. Roland wanders into a town where all of the people have gone. He is accosted by mutants and beaten badly. He awakens in what appears to be a hospital tended by demi-human nurses and insects that heal the wounded. There are only two other patients beside Roland in the makeshift hospital. The man in the bunk next to him says that there were more than twenty a week ago, but they disappeared one by one. One night, while feigning sleep, Roland learns his “nurses’” secret nature and schemes to escape. He earns the affections of one of his keepers to help him make it out.

King is at his best when writing about the Dark Tower. This story was much more engaging and entertaining than the book that surrounds its events. It was a pleasure to visit Roland’s world again, if only for a brief time. King tells the reader that the next installment of the Dark Tower, entitled, The Wolves of the Calla, is done and ready to be published – all 900 pages!

Everything’s Eventual
A 19 year old high school dropout has a special talent for knowing how to write just the right kind of letter – letters that send people to their graves. His talent is noticed by an international organization that uses such talents to improve the world. The young man is set up with his own home, computer, and cash flow. All he needs to do to stay on easy street is to write these letters or emails to targets which are identified for him. It’s easy for awhile, until he reads the story of one of his victims. That gets him started researching what he has wrought.

This is an interesting first person character study. Certainly some words could have been pared to make it more taught, but the premise works and the main character is sympathetic.

L.T.’s Theory of Pets
L.T. is a meat packer that occasionally regales coworkers with the tale of how his marriage broke up over the issue of pets. His wife bought him a dog that hated him, but loved her. He bought her a cat that hated her, but loved him. Eventually L.T.’s wife leaves him, not out of anger, but out of love because they are no longer compatible. The narrator of the story invites L.T. to dinner at his house. After dinner, he learns L.T.’s true feelings on the subject of life, marriage, and pets. The narrator examines his own marriage.

King says this is his favorite story out of the book and, if he’s asked to read his own work in public, he reads this story. I found it exceptionally average. It’s mainstream fiction which I like less than horror and at the end of the story, I felt no differently about L.T., his wife, or the narrator.

The Road Virus Heads North
A horror writer stops by a yard sale and picks up a disturbing painting of an evil looking man driving a car. On his way home, he notices that the painting has changed. The car is moving north behind him. He decides to get rid of it, tossing it over a hill at a roadside rest stop. But that doesn’t stop the unrelenting driver of that ugly muscle car from making his way north, leaving a few victims in his path.

This was vintage Stephen King in his old comfort zone. The main character is a writer, subject to the same torments and irritations King himself endures. The story is straightforward horror with an element of pursuit and lots of gore. Great stuff. Even after having “matured,” King shows he’s still able to crank out a tale of terror.

This story was made into an episode of the TNT miniseries Nightmares and Dreamscapes and starred Tom Berenger.

Lunch at the Gotham Café
A New York stockbroker agrees to meet his soon to be ex wife and her attorney at an upscale New York café to discuss short term arrangements for their separation. When the stockbroker arrives, he’s disconcerted by the Maitre’ De’s odd behavior, calling his umbrella a dog and ranting that he’s not allowed to have a dog. He sits down to talk with his ex wife and her counsel when the Maitre De decides it’s time to take care of that dog and its owner once and for all.

This story is a gore fest, something King didn’t write often, but does it well here. The Maitre De is a disconcerting character whose wild behavior is sudden and violent. The main character is made more sympathetic because his ex wife is not a nice person, even after he saves her life.

That Feeling, You can Only Say What it is in French
A woman is cruising along a country road with her husband, on their way to a Florida island for their second honeymoon. Road signs, things her husband, says, and songs on the radio all give her a sense of déjà vu. All these things she associates with the name, “Floyd.” She wakes with a start on a private plane which is taking her and her husband to Florida. They arrive, get into a car, and start the drive. Again, déjà vu. Again, the name “Floyd.” She awakens on the plane. . .

King says Hell is repetition. Give King credit for not tipping his hand on the twist to this story because it’s a pretty good twist at the end of a pretty good story.

1408
A writer who engages in debunking “true” ghost stories prepares to spend the night in room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel in New York. The manager tries to talk him out of it, but he’s determined. He lasts just 70 minutes.

This is one of my favorite King short works. I remember feeling disconcerted and uncomfortable reading it and incredibly satisfied when I finished it. King is known for his story telling and this story is not original, as he admits. But King the wordsmith shines through and takes the tired premise of a haunted hotel and literally wills it into something great just through his use of the language.

This story was made into a movie in 2007 that starred John Cusack.

Riding the Bullet
A college kid gets a call that his single mother has suffered a stroke and is in the hospital. He hitch hikes across Maine to see her. He gets picked up by an unusual driver who makes him choose – his life or his mother’s.

King remarks that this story, like the short story Gramma in Skeleton Crew, is reminiscent of his own mother’s passing. I had a similar experience except I got the call on my way to a friend’s house. The story was poignant for me.

Riding the Bullet was made into a straight to video movie in 2004.

Luckey Quarter
A Nevada hotel housekeeper gets a quarter for a tip from a patron. With it is a note from the former room tenant, “This is a luckey quarter.” She’s bitter and angry because her daughter needs braces and her son can’t have the electronic toys that all the other kids have. She takes the quarter and puts it in a slot machine. Soon, she’s on a roll.

King left the story order of this book to a draw of the cards. The cards were not “luckey” for King because he ended a fine collection of short stories with its weakest entry. The story is not bad or ridiculous; just dull.

Book to Movie: Carrie (2002)

Book to Movie: Carrie (2002)
Teleplay by Brian Fuller
Directed by David Carson
Based on the novel Carrie by Stephen King

In 2002, the brain trust at NBC decided to remake the 1976 classic, Carrie as a springboard for a potential television series. The result was uneven with some decent acting, but a horrible rewrite of King’s story.

The movie opens with the scene that Brian DePalma elected to leave out of his movie – the scene with the rocks bombarding the White home as young Carrie throws her temper tantrum. The movie then proceeds with Carrie (portrayed by Angela Bettis) having her first period and going hysterical.

The primary difference between the DePalma movie and the Carson film is that Carson tries to retain some of the chapter breaks that King used with his government inquiries and book excerpts. The scenes are broken by police interviews with Sue Snell and a couple others. This is the movie’s first stumbling point.

They make Sue Snell, confused adolescent, into some street savvy woman who is not disturbed by what has happened to her classmates. She defies the police with half truths and quips. The character of Sue Snell is destroyed in Carson’s movie. Sue Snell’s conflict between fitting in with her classmates and wanting to make amends to Carrie was central to the story. Fuller and Carson wiped it out.

The movie follows King’s book closely for awhile before deviating to help set up the twist at the end. There is an encounter at a department store where Sue helps Carrie choose lipstick. They are obviously trying to build a rapport between the two.

I like the introduction of Chris Hargensen’s father and his bullying tactics into the story. If there was one thing that Fuller did well, it was rewriting this scene back into the story where DePalma left it out.

The prom scene follows King’s story and the original movie. Fuller then moves toward King’s original ending with Carrie laying waste to the entire town before returning home to mother. The scene at home is where we get our clue that something different than King’s vision is going to unfold.

Carrie’s mom is not able to stab Carrie. Just like in the book, Carrie uses telekinesis to stop her mother’s heart. She then sends out some sort of mental message to Sue Snell who stops by to pick up Carrie. Sue, who just lost her boyfriend and most of her friends, is going to take Carrie to Florida where she will live under a new identity.

Where the movie stayed with King’s story, it was well written and well shot. No one could envy Bettis for having to reprise the role that Sissy Spacek defined in movie lore, but she holds her own. Where Spacek played the part mousy, Bettis played it dark. Give Bettis credit for succeeding in making the role her own.

The rest of the cast was not so good. Where Piper Laurie played Margaret White over the top, Patricia Clarkson tried for brooding and understated. She only succeeded in making the character boring. Kandyse McClure does what she can with the role of Sue Snell, but it is so badly written that it cannot be salvaged.


Tobias Mehler is no Greatest American Hero, but he comes across as genuinely likeable and kind. The writers left his part intact. If you’ve seen the television show, Lost, then you know how hard it is to see Emilie de Ravin as the wicked Chris Hargensen. De Raven does the best she could, but the writers reduce Hargensen to a caricature of the bully bad girl.

The movie was made to launch a television series where Carrie would run a secret operation in Florida to help other telekinetic teens cope with their powers. They were hoping to recreate some of the success generated by the television series, The Dead Zone based on the character Johnny Smith from that book. But the movie remake did not attract an audience and the project was scrapped.

It should please fans of King’s work that it did. Carrie White is one of King’s most famous and iconic characters. Her climatic demise was a fitting end for this movie and literary creature of such renown. To redefine her with new adventures while running a halfway house would have destroyed that iconic stature.

I would recommend that all but diehard King fans skip this movie. It’s not in the same ballpark with DePalma’s classic film. King fans should study it with cold detachment. There are some interesting twists put on some of the characters an in a few rare instances, Carson’s film recreates the novel better than DePalma. But don’t count on enjoying it as a movie. The foolish ending and the destruction of Sue Snell’s character as envisioned by King ruin it as a film.

Blind Ambition: The White House Years by John Dean

Blind Ambition: The White House Years
By John Dean
Copyright 1976

John Dean, principal architect of the Watergate cover up; traitor to some, patriot to others, chronicles his years inside the Nixon White House. He describes the events that led up to the Watergate break in and his efforts to keep criminal and congressional investigators from finding the links between the bungled burglary and the White House.

John Dean’s service in government started in the Justice Department under the tutelage of Attorney General John Mitchell. He rose through the ranks to become deputy attorney general and developed a close relationship with Mitchell. When he received the offer from Nixon’s chief of staff, Bob Haldeman to join the White House staff, in 1970, as counsel to the president, Mitchell tried to discourage him, telling him horror stories about working in the White House and making a boogie man out of the president’s chief counsel for domestic affairs, John Ehrlichman, telling Dean, “I doubt Ehrlichman will ever take his foot off your shoulder.”

But the 30 year old lawyer was not to be dissuaded and went to work at the White House. He found that counsel to the president wasn’t nearly as glorious as it sounded. He had very little contact with Richard Nixon. His official duties were to serve as the president’s lawyer which amounted to witnessing the president sign an updated will and analyzing potential official acts to reconcile them with the law.

His unofficial duties were to keep tabs on anti-war demonstrations and organized groups opposed to the president and his policies. Political intelligence and combating Richard Nixon’s enemies were valued skills at the White House of the early 1970s. The law and the civil rights of others were no impediment to the White House intelligence gathering operation.

As the campaign for re-election started ramping up, John Mitchell resigned as Attorney General and took over the Campaign to Re-Elect the President. Nixon’s detractors nicknamed it “CREEP.” In official circles it was known as the CRP. The CRP was obsessed with two things early on: intelligence on potential Democratic nominees and security at the 1972 Republican National Convention to be held in Miami.

A former FBI agent and federal prosecutor, G. Gordon Liddy, was hired by the CRP to handle security and intelligence for the campaign. Dean got an early taste of just how intense Liddy could be when Liddy showed up in his White House office one day with a bandage on his hand. Dean inquired as to Liddy’s injury. Liddy said he held a lighter to his hand to demonstrate to his underlings how committed he was to the cause of re-electing Richard Nixon. Later, after the arrest of the burglars, Liddy told Dean he was willing to be gunned down on a street corner if it would serve the plan.

One afternoon at Mitchell’s Justice Department office (just before he resigned as Attorney General), Liddy presented his plan to Mitchell, Dean, and Deputy Campaign Director Jeb Stuart Magruder. It was an intricate, expansive, and absurd plan that called for the hiring of call girls, wiretaps, and miscellaneous dirty tricks to be played on the president’s opponents during the convention. According to Dean, it was him that stood up and said, “This is not something that should be discussed in the office of the attorney general.” No one else in the room can recall Dean making such a moral stand.

Morality aside, the plan was rejected by all in the room. Politely, they told Liddy that it was too expensive and complicated. They sent him back to the drawing board. All agreed that the man hired to supervise the security and intelligence for the campaign was just a bit off kilter.

Conventional views of history find the roots of the Watergate break in in this meeting. Later, Liddy would tell Dean that Magruder was pressuring him for intelligence. Nixon’s current obsession was screwing Democratic National Chairman, Larry O’Brien over a retainer paid to him by Howard Hughes. Nixon’s own brother had been pilloried in the press over taking money from Hughes and Nixon wanted to visit a little revenge on the Democrats.

Just who ordered the break in has never been positively determined.

Dean says he first learned of the Watergate break in upon his return from the Philippines in June 1972. It wasn’t long before CRP staffers and eventually White House officials started showing up in Dean’s office to clear their conscience and seek his advice.

At first, Dean reveled in his new status. Haldeman was checking in with him on a regular basis. He was emerging as point man on the biggest crisis the campaign faced heading into the 1972 election. It was Dean who learned that the architect of the burglary, E. Howard Hunt, had an office in the White House. He had done work for Nixon’s special counsel and “hatchet man” Charles “Chuck” Colson. Many of these operations, undertaken in tandem with Liddy, were black bag ops – including breaking into the office of a California psychologist who was treating Pentagon Papers leaker, Daniel Ellsburg.

Dean took custody of Hunt’s papers retrieved from his safe. Some he destroyed. Others were turned over to acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray. Dean asked Gray to provide him with the FBI’s “302’s” which are raw notes from investigators as they related to Watergate. Gray complied and Dean was able to monitor the FBI’s investigation.

Most problematic for everyone in the White House and at the CRP were the demands by Hunt, Liddy, and the five burglars arrested inside the Watergate for money for lawyers and to support their families. When demanding money, they made veiled threats of talking to prosecutors about White House ties to the Watergate break-in.

Dean emerged as the go between on the burglars’ demands for money. At first, funds were funneled through the CRP. After that, the task was passed to Nixon’s personal attorney and CRP counsel Herb Kalmbach to raised funds to cover their expenses. Dean, Kalmbach, Mitchell, and Fred LaRue who was a general gopher in the White House. That all changed on December 8, 1972 when United Airlines flight 553 crashed near Chicago, claiming the life of Howard Hunt’s wife. Among Mrs. Hunt’s possessions was found $10,000 cash. The media and investigators began speculating on where Mrs. Hunt, with her husband unemployed and in the DC jail, received the cash.

Dean went to his superiors, Haldeman and Ehrlichman with the pressing need to raise cash for the burglars and specifically Hunt, to keep them quiet. Both believed that the entire mess was John Mitchell’s problem and told Dean to go back to Mitchell to get him to raise the funds. Finally, with Dean in a panic, Haldeman authorized a cash payment from an illegal $350,000 White House slush fund maintained in his office. Eventually, all of that money would end up in the hands of the Watergate defendents.

After the 1972 election, Watergate became a point of interest in the media. Nixon denied that there was any White House involvement in Watergate and told the media that he had asked his Chief Counsel, John Dean, to investigate the matter. If any White House employees had been involved, Nixon said, They would be fired and subject to vigorous prosecution.

After that, Dean was constantly pressured by Haldeman to draft a “Dean Report” that would clear the White House. But Dean knew that the White House had been involved because he’d been involved, Haldeman had approved payments, and he’d learned that Ehrlichman had signed off on Hunt and Liddy’s excursion into the office of Daniel Ellsburg’s psychologist.

Dean started to realize that the coverup could not be maintained. That eventually, the money would dry up and there would be no more money to keep the defendants silent. He decided it was time he met directly with the president and lay out all the facts so the president could exercise his judgment to find a way out.

That March 21st meeting was a turning point in the Watergate scandal. Dean met with the president and told him he was in danger. He told Nixon there was a cancer growing close to the president and that cancer was spreading as more and more of his aides involved themselves in the cover up. He told Nixon of the money demands. Nixon asked how much Dean thought it would cost to keep the men quiet. Dean told the president it would probably cost at least a million dollars. Nixon said he knew where they could get the money and asked Dean if he had any ideas on who should deliver it.

Dean was dismayed that the president wanted to continue the cover up rather than find some way to bring it to an end. Eventually, Haldeman was summoned and briefed. The conversation became more rational when Haldeman and Nixon agreed that the cash payments would not contain Watergate and in the end, they would all look like “dopes,” anyway. The meeting ended with another suggestion that Dean prepare a report.

From that point, Watergate ceased to be a nettlesome problem and became a crisis in the White House. The Senate was convening a special committee to look into the matter. Mitchell and Kalmbach continued to raise hush money, but it was getting harder to find and harder to deliver. Talks began between Dean, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman about finding someone who would step forward and take responsibility for Watergate. Everybody’s favorite scapegoat was John Mitchell, now in private law practice in New York. But “old stoneface” wasn’t willing to step up.

On March 23, Judge John Sirica imposed harsh penalties on all the Watergate defendants, hoping that one of them would break and offer up bigger fish. Dean was sent to Camp David to draft the Dean Report for the president to use as his defense against charges that he’d known about the break in and that there was a White House directed coverup. Dean had already been publicly implicated in the coverup when Patrick Gray told the senate committee that he’d shared details of the FBI investigation with Dean at Dean’s request.

Dean went to Camp David and began analyzing the situation. He didn’t see a way out for himself. Any report he’d write would either be a lie, or would implicate the highest ranking officials in the White House –including himself. He also felt as if he was possibly being made the scapegoat for the entire affair. With a Dean Report in hand, the president could tell the American people he’d relied on his chief counsel to get to the bottom of the case and was lied to. Dean resolved to hire a lawyer and start talking to prosecutors.

According to Dean, he felt as if he were acting out of loyalty to the president by bringing the cover up to a halt before the president was involved. (Dean didn’t know that Nixon had fatally involved himself on June 23, 1972 when he ordered a CIA to block the FBI investigation). He left Camp David and hired an attorney.

At first, Dean was determined to remain loyal while telling prosecutors about the early stages of the cover up and the payment of hush money. He was cast out of Nixon’s inner circle by Haldeman and Ehrlichman who now regarded him as traitorous. Dean implicated Mitchell, Magruder, Kalmbach, LaRue, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman in his conversations with prosecutors, but kept he president out of the conversation.

Shortly after he began talking to prosecutors, Nixon summoned Dean to his hideaway office in the Old Executive Office Building to talk. There, Dean laid out what he’d told prosecutors. He told the president that Haldeman and Ehrlichman were both guilty of obstruction of justice, as was he. He recommended that the three of them resign together. Dean got the impression from the conversation that Nixon was not talking to him, but to some mysterious third party, like a tape recorder. Rather than trying to get facts from Dean, he seemed to be posturing as if he’d known nothing about the cover up.

The next day, Dean was summoned to the Oval Office. As he was walking toward the office, he saw Haldeman and Ehrlichman leaving, laughing and joking. As soon as they saw Dean, their countenance changed to one of somber bordering on hostility. Dean entered the Oval Office and found that a resignation letter had been prepared for him. Nixon claimed that similar letters had been prepared for Haldeman and Ehrlichman. Dean refused to sign his, saying he’d resign as long as Haldeman and Ehrlichman went with him.

Dean, now feeling no loyalty to the president, continued to talk to prosecutors. He also agreed to testify before the Senate Ervin Committee that was investigating. He became its star witness by providing eight hours of earthy testimony about the cover up. Nixon would go on national television to announce the resignations of Haldeman and Ehrlichman and the firing of Dean.

Nixon denied Dean’s allegations, saying that there was no evidence to back them up other than notes indicating that Dean met with the president at the dates and times specified. Suspecting he’d been taped, Dean instructed prosecutors to inquire about a White House taping system. Those tapes would bear out most of Dean’s testimony.

Dean ended up pleading guilty to one felony count of obstruction of justice. Judge Sirica was especially hard on Dean and sentenced him to four years – much to his attorney’s outrage. He was given a few weeks to put his affairs in order before he was taken into custody.

Dean was incarcerated at Fort Holabird – a special facility for criminals who need protection such as mafia turncoats and witnesses whose lives are in danger. There, he ran into Chuck Colson, Jeb Stuart Magruder, and Herb Kalmbach. At first, Dean was not allowed to talk to his fellow Watergate conspirators because he was the key witness in the trial against Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and others.

Once his testimony was complete, Colson and Dean got together and compared notes. Neither could figure out who ordered the Watergate break in. However, Dean describes one scene when a forlorn and broken Jeb Magruder came close to admitting he did before shuffling off without another word.

Dean survived his time in prison and his attorney was able to get Judge Sirica to reduce the sentence to time served which was about four months. Dean was disbarred, but went on to have a career in investment banking and is a darling of the political left because he is a frequent critic of Republican presidents and politicians.

A lot of what Dean writes in Blind Ambition is self serving bullshit. Dean was the first to tell his story, so it was against his story that everybody else’s story was compared and if their version of events didn’t match Dean’s they were considered to be lies. Dean was also the first Watergate defendant to write a book and provide the public with a firsthand narrative of the scandal that gripped the nation for two years.

The book is still controversial today. Authors Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin, in their book Silent Coup: The Removal of a President, developed a compelling case to demonstrate that it was John Dean himself who ordered the Watergate break in. Dean hired a lawyer and sued. The case was settled confidentially. However, the case laid out by Colodny and Gettlin is compelling and I plan to review their work here soon.

There is also something to be said about honor and loyalty. Some will look at the life of John Dean and say he was a man who did some bad things, but stepped forward and accepted responsibility. There are others who would say he was the person who put the hole in the boat, was the first to know the ship was sinking, and got into the only lifeboat alone. I tend to favor the latter.

John Dean could not have stopped the downfall of Richard Nixon, nor was he the cause of it. Nixon sealed his own fate less than a week after the break in in his June 23, 1972 conversation with Bob Haldeman. But Dean started the cover up. He initiated it and maintained it. His bosses had bigger issues on their mind. Watergate was all consuming to Dean. It was his full time job once it started.

Had Dean done nothing, The investigation would have probably never made its way to the president because Dean was the first link to the White House. He involved the White House and left a trail that led to the White House. Had he done nothing, the prosecutors would have got Hunt, Liddy, Mitchell and Magruder. Dean started the cover up, and then made sure that all of his superior and coworkers were coconspirators.

I sympathize with Dean in that it did appear that Nixon and Haldeman had no problem in making him a scapegoat when both had been compromised. He could not have been reasonably expected to let the President of the United States lead the world to believe that he alone was responsible. But a more honorable man would have gone down with his team – not throw them overboard.

Dean’s book is a valuable resource as it serves as a thorough and authoritative chronology of the cover-up. When paired with Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s The Final Days, one can get a complete story of events from the break in to the resignation.

Book to Movie: Carrie (1976)

Book to Movie: Carrie (1976)
Screenplay by Lawrence D. Cohen
Directed by Brian DePalma
Based on the novel Carrie by Stephen King

Stephen King’s first book was made into a hit movie before his second book was published. The modest success of the novel and the smash hit movie set the stage for the most prolific writing career of the 20th century.

As I said in my review of the book, the movie very closely follows the novel up until the end. The opening chapter of the book which is a newspaper account of the White house being bombarded with rocks is omitted. The movie opens as Carrie has her first period during gym class and is taunted by the girls.

The gym teacher complains to the principal who dismisses Carrie. The girls (featuring first time actors Amy Irving, P.J. Soles, and Edie McClurg) have to serve their detentions with the gym teacher. Chris Hargensen walks off the field in frustration and is suspended. The scene with Chris’ father is omitted.

We are introduced to Margaret White in a Cohen drafted scene when she drops in on Sue Snell’s mother to preach the gospel. It’s apparent then that Piper Laurie is going to steal the show with her over the top performance.

One scene is added that gives us a deeper understanding of the character Tommy Ross. The setting is a classroom and all of Carrie’s tormenters are there. A teacher reads aloud a poem written by Tommy Ross. He asks for critiques. The class is silent until Carrie mumbles, “It was beautiful.” The class snickers and the teacher proceeds to make fun of and belittle Carrie. Tommy mumbles, “You’re an asshole.”

Sue Snell asks her boyfriend, Tommy Ross, to ask Carrie to the prom. Miss Collins (the gym teacher) is suspicious of Sue’s motives and questions her and Tommy intensely. She gives up, knowing there’s nothing she can do about it.

Meanwhile, Chris Hargensen recruits her boyfriend, played by John Travolta in his first movie role, to kill a pig and supply the blood for her vicious prank.

Carrie makes her dress and her mother begs her not to go. Carrie pins her mother against the wall and leaves with Tommy.

The prom scene is a nice bit of cinematography. They arrive at the prom and Miss Collins is there to greet them. She is delighted with Tommy’s gentlemanly behavior and delighted that something nice is happening to Carrie. She and Tommy dance. The dance is shot from a camera mounted on a rotating platform on the floor, circling the couple. It makes for a disorienting, disturbing scene.

Meanwhile, Chris and Billy Nolan wait under the stage to dump the blood. Norma (P.J.Soles) fixes the ballots to elect Carrie and Tommy king and queen. They take the stage. The band plays. Carrie basks in the acceptance of her classmates as they applaud. Then the blood drops.

Carrie stands frozen, her face a rictus of rage. Sissy Spacek delivers her finest acting performance at the movie’s climax. For a moment, the crowd stands in stunned silence. Then, they start laughing. Carrie looks down and sees everyone laughing (in a scene shot through a prism lens). Even Miss Collins is laughing.

Carrie closes the door and starts yanking out wires with her mind. The gym goes dark, then the fire starts. Panic ensues.

Carrie leaves the gym and starts toward home. Chris and Billy have escaped as well. As Carrie walks along the street, Billy tries to run her down. Carrie turns and causes the car to flip over and burst into flames.

Here, Cohen writes a new ending that worked well. Instead of rampaging through town, destroying buildings and killing people, Carrie heads home to mama, looking for solace. Carrie’s mom embraces her and tells her the story of her conception; of how her virtuous and saintly father got drunk one night. It started out as rape, but mama admits, she enjoyed it.

Then Margaret White does what she perceives to be the Christian thing. She does not suffer a witch to live and stabs Carrie in the back. Carrie is stunned and mortally wounded. She responds by using her telekinesis to propel knives at Margaret. Margaret’s hands are pinned to the wall by knives before Carrie puts one into her heart, killing her. She looks like Christ on the cross in her moment of death.

Carrie pulls Margaret from the wall as she starts pulling the house down around them. She crawls to her closet and embraces her mother until she dies. The house burns and crumbles around her as she slips away.

We then move forward a few days and are in Sue Snell’s bedroom. Her mother and doctor are attending to her. The doctor leaves as Sue lays sedated upon the bed. Mrs. Snell is commiserating with a friend on the phone how tragic it all was. Sue is dreaming.

She walks to the empty lot where the White home once stood. In the center of that lot is a cross. On that cross, someone has painted, “Carrie White Burns in Hell!” Sue approaches the cross. She’s wearing a virginal white gown and carrying white flowers. She kneels before the cross and drops the flowers at its base. Then, with a bloody hand shoots forth from the ground and grabs Sue’s wrist. She wakes up in uncontrolled hysterics. There, DePalma ends his movie, zooming out from Sue Snell as she’s gripped by mania in her bedroom.

King once said that he thought the movie did so well is because, when it was made, nobody knew who Brian DePalma was and nobody knew who Stephen King was. Few people had read the book. There were no expectations or preconceptions based on reputation.

The movie did well at the box office and launched the careers of Sissy Spacek, John Travolta, and P.J. Soles. It launched Brian DePalma’s career as a director and proved very early in his career that Stephen King’s stories were box office draws.

DePalma uses some unconventional cinematography in the film that adds to its appeal. The camera mounted on the spinning platform to shoot the dance scene whilst romantic music plays in the background is disorienting. He uses split screen to show the chaos at the prom. Carrie’s emotional mania after having been doused in pig’s blood is heightened by the disconcerting use of the spinning prism lens. And the hand coming out of the ground made me jump like no other “gotcha” scene in the hundreds of horror movies I’ve viewed.

Much of the credit for the quality of Carrie must go to Lawrence Cohen who knew just what to take from King’s story, what to leave out, and what to change. Cohen recognized the value of the story and did not tinker with the plot at all, much to his credit. Cohen fleshed out the character of Tommy Ross, upon whom the story pivots. In the novel, King left him under developed to the detriment of the story. Finally, Cohen gave us a more climatic ending which worked better on screen than the one King wrote, which worked very well in the book.

Carrie ranks very high on the list of Hollywood adaptations of King’s work. It’s not the refined, mature work brought to the screen like The Shawshank Redemption or The Green Mile. Nor is it the epic two or three part television miniseries. Carrie was just a horror movie with no allegory or metaphor. But it was great horror with a sympathetic and tragic heroine, despicable antagonists, and a plot that moved.

The Runes of the Earth

The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever: Book One:
The Runes of the Earth
by Stephen R. Donaldson
Copyright 2004

Almost 20 years after he left us with Linden Avery weeping over the dead body of Thomas Covenat, Stephen R. Donaldson prepares us for one final excursion to The Land where Linden Avery will have to once again face her old foe, Lord Foul as Foul prepares to attack the Arch of Time and unleash himself into the universe, free to wreak havoc among the cosmos.

Linden has moved on with her life. She now operates a mental clinic she established. Among her patients is Joan Covenant, ex-wife of the late Thomas Covenant. Since his death, she has lived in a state of mental isolation, unreachable by any stimuli. The only thing that keeps her from engaging in maiming herself is the white gold wedding band she wears on a chain.

She has also adopted a son. The boy, Jeremiah that was one of the misfortunate children in the cult that kidnapped Thomas Covenant is now her ward. In the insanity of those final moments of Covenant’s life, the young boy thrust his hands into the fire. Linden was forced to amputate two of his fingers.

Jerimiah is as unreachable as Joan Covenant. He responds to no voice or command. His only interaction with the world is in his intricate constructs of Tinker Toys, KNex, and Legos. Now entering adolescence, Jeremiah spends his days building things.

Joan is shocked one evening when Roger Covenant – Thomas and Joan’s son – walks into Linden’s clinic to claim his mother. He has reached the age of 21. He’s ready to inherit his estate and take over the responsibility of seeing to his mother’s care. Linden tries to convince him of the folly of trying to take care of a woman in Joan’s condition outside of a medical facility. Roger is not to be dissuaded.

Joan arrives at home to care for Jeremiah. As she tries to relax, she receives a call, informing her that Roger Covenant has kidnapped his mother and killed hospital personnel in his escape. Linden goes to the hospital to deal with the chaos ensuing there. While she is there, Roger goes to her home, badly beats the babysitter, and kidnaps Jeremiah.

Linden and the police pursue Roger and his hostages into the woods to the area where Thomas Covenant died in order that Joan may live. Roger opens fire on police. Joan is struck by lightning just as police return fire. Roger is hit by their bullets. Linden, trying to save Jeremiah, takes a bullet to the chest. Roger, Joan, Jeremiah, and Linden disappear from the world.

Linden materializes in The Land, high atop Kevin’s Watch. She knows that thousands of hears have passed in The Land since she left ten years ago by her reckoning. She studies The Land, no longer under the sway of the Sunbane. But Linden can’t gauge the truth health of The Land because her healthsense – her ability to see the health and vitality of all living things in The Land – is blocked.

As she assesses her situation, she is set upon by a withered old man calling himself Anele. He is fleeing in terror from his pursuers he calls The Masters. As Linden tries to gain some knowledge from the paranoid and panicky man, a storm hits Kevin’s Watch. Anele and Linden flee down the steps from the watch and stand witness as a defining edifice of The Land comes crashing down in the storm.

They are then captured by the Masters Anele fears so much. Linden is horrified to see that they are actually Haruchai – the race of the Bloodguard who offered their fealty in defense of the lords and The Land. They are taken to Mithil Stonedown, the village that Thomas Covenant visited upon his arrival in The Land a millennia before. There, they are held prisoner.

Eventually, a Haruchai named Stave comes to talk to Linden. He recognizes her from the lore passed down from the Haruchai her journeyed with her. Linden’s only concern is the recovery of her son. She has no idea where he is or what Lord Foul’s plans for him. Stave tells her that they have captured Anele because he is strong with earthpower and the use of that lore is forbidden. Earthpower, Stave tells Linden, has always been the source of ill in the land. As the self proclaimed Masters of The Land, the Haruchai have forbidden its use. All of the lore of The Land has been withheld from the generations that followed Sunder and Hollian, the two Stonedowners who were left with the Staff of Law to banish the Sunbane and restore the earth to health.

Linden is later visited by a young stonedowner named Liand. Linden tells Liand of how The Land used to be and how people used its lore to improve their own lives and maintain the vitality of The Land.

When a storm hits the village, Linden seizes her chance to escape. She takes with her Anele, to whom she has promised to care for. They flee south into the mountains. As they battle the storm, Anele stops and turns to her. He speaks to her in the voice of Lord Foul. He tells her that she is his tool and he wants to help her achieve his ends. He guides her to hurtloom – the sand that contains healing power – so that she might restore herself. Foul has Jeremiah with him. He tells her that the Haruchai unwittingly serve his ends. Anele serves his ends, and she will serve his ends. Plans have been put into motion to shatter the Arch of Time.

As Linden starts to flee again, the young stonedowner, Liand, catches up with her and offers to join her. He wants to learn more about earthpower. As they seek shelter from the unnatural storm that is attacking them, they are discovered by Stave. Stave tells them that he is there to capture Anele and bring him back, but there is a pack of Kresh – giant wolves – on his heels. He tells them to prepare to fight.

The odds seem overwhelming with dozens of wolves the size of horses descending upon them. From behind them come a group of wiry, agile people armed with garrotes. With their help, Stave is able to drive off the Kresh.

Those that have come to Linden’s aid are the Ramen – caretakers of the great horses of The Land known as Ranyhyn. They take Linden and the others to the Verge of Wandering – a valley in the southern mountains they visit infrequently to check on the status of The Land. It has been many thousands of years since the Ranyhyn and the Ramen vacated the Plains of Ra and fled The Land since the coming of the Sunbane.

Anele is entranced with the stone in the valley and is able to use it to tell Linden how he lost his birthright. Anele is the son of Sunder and Hollian. When Hollian’s life was restored by the Forrestal, her unborn baby was imbued with unsurpassed earthpower that has sustained his life all these years. His birthright was the Staff of Law which was fashioned by Covenant to replace the old staff with which the old lords wielded earthpower. But one day, after venturing out of his cave for food, he returned to find the staff gone. He has spent the ensuing millennia searching for it, insane with grief.

While staying in the Verge, Linden learns that the Ramen have formed an alliance with ur-viles, the demondim spawn created by Lord Foul. These self-loathing creatures have always been enemies of The Land. Unable to communicate with them, she is unsure of their motives.

She also meets a creature called Esmer with whom the Ramen have formed an alliance. Esmer says he is the offspring of the Haruchai Cail who was overcome by the Dancers of the Sea as Covenant and Linden sailed across the ocean to find the One Tree from which they’d hoped to fashion a new Staff of Law. Esmer immediately challenges Stave to fight for having dishonored his father in casting him out after his moment of weakness. Esmer beats Stave badly, but does not kill him.

Linden tells everyone her only mission is to save her son held captive by Lord Foul. The Ranyhyn offer their aid and ask her to join them in a horse rite where they will reveal their knowledge to her.

The Ranyhyn take Linden and Stave to a small pond. The horses been galloping around the pond and Linden drinks of its water. She learns that the storms, called caesures, are caused by the insane Joan Covenant unleashing gouts of power from her white gold wedding band. They are disturbances in time; attacks upon the Arch of Time itself.

After the horse rite, Linden decides she is going to utilize the storms, or caesures as they’re called – to travel back in time and retrieve the staff of law before Anele lost it. As she is retrieving the staff with the help of the ur-viles, Esmer betrays her and summons Demondim – the father race of the ur-viles -- to oppose her. Tapping into the White Gold she still wears on a chain around her neck, she creates a new caesure. The whole party – including the Demondim and the evil Illearth Stone that Linden thought – are transported forward to current time. The time is right, but the party lands far away from the southern mountains from whence they started. They find themselves near the foot of Revelstone – past home to past Lords and current home to the Masters.

The Haruchai are able to get the party safely into Revelstone and engage the Demondim. Linden,Stave, Liand, and a few of the Ramen are welcomed to Revelstone and provided quarters where they are cared for by a doughty old woman named Mahdoubt who seems to have no past and no future but caring for those who stay at Revelstone. They are watched over by a Bloodguard who has had two of his fingers removed. The humbled are mutilated to resemble Thomas Covenant to remind them of the failure of the Bloodguard in handling the Illearth Stone centuries before.

After settling into Revelstone, Linden appeals to the leader of the Masters, Handir, for assistance in her search for her son. Handir is deaf to her appeals on behalf of her son and on behalf of the Land which is in dire danger from Lord Foul.

The party then receives word that two riders are approaching the keep. Linden and the rest climb to the battlements, she is startled to see her son Jeremiah riding with Thomas Covenant, seemingly back from the dead.

There, volume one of the final chronicles ends.

As a stand alone book, this one does not stand well. One has to remember it is an installment in a much larger story and Donaldson’s volume one is but a table setter for the story to come. There is scant story in this first volume. Much of it is dedicated to developing new characters and to putting players where they need to be to get the story rolling. The character development without plot developments makes for slow, sometimes tedious reading.

In the 20 years in between visits to his Land, Donaldon’s writing style has not changed much – and neither have his characters. The narrative gets heavily bogged down in debate, self doubt, and self recrimination. Linden is the same self-pitying, self doubting person she always was. She has discovered profanity in the last ten years.

However, without Thomas Covenant with her to guide her and provide her historical knowledge, she is on her own in the Land and is forced to lead and to convince others to follow her as she pursues her one and only motive: to save her son.

Donaldson has set up what promises to be an interesting tale. Roger Covenant is introduced. Although he is referenced frequently in the first two trilogies, the reader never meets him. It would appear that he is going to be our new villain.

Joan is back and her ability to so deeply affect the land promises that she will be developed further. It was for her that Thomas Covenant, hero of our first two trilogies, sacrificed his own life. Her role is not yet defined. But as an insane person wielding unlimited power, she promises to be a disruptive force.

And we have Thomas Covenant back from the dead. We’ll find out if Donaldson can provide the reader with a sound explanation for Covenant’s return or if he’ll make us groan with disgust at something ill conjured and poorly though out. It will be interesting to see how Covenant weighs the needs of Linden and her son against his own if the conflict comes to that.

Donaldson fans know that if you stick with his stories which can sometimes become tedious and if you can stomach his sometimes pitiful heroes, that he is going to tell you a great story. The first two installments were trilogies. This final chronicle will be four books. He took one entire book to set the stage. It looks promising with the return of Thomas Covenant. One can only hope that Donaldson races forward with an exciting and compelling story.

Stories in His Own Hand: The Everyday Wisdom of Ronald Reagan

Stories in His Own Hand: The Everyday Wisdom of Ronald Reagan
Edited by Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson and Martin Anderson
Copyright 2001

This book is a compilation of Ronald Reagan’s writing between 1976 and 1979 with a few letters from his presidential years. Reagan told stories and provided short commentary on radio in the late 1970s between presidential campaigns. He wrote and edited these scripts long handed on legal pads. Skinner culled what he deemed to be the best of more than 650 stories Reagan authored.

Included in the book are reproductions of Reagan’s hand written scripts including his edits. This provides us with a glimpse into the style and process of communication by one of the great communicators in history.

Foreword by George P. Schultz
Shultz served Ronald Reagan as his Secretary of State. Reagan’s White House has been characterized by his detractors as a collection of “yes men.” Schultz was no yes man. He was one of Reagan’s advisors unafraid to tell the boss bad news, to tell him he was wrong, and to tell him he was being ill-served by others. Of all of the men involved in the Iran-Contra mess, only George Schultz has emerged in history as a hero.

Schultz recalls his boss fondly and recalls the tales with which Ronald Reagan regaled his cabinet and advisors. He notes that Reagan’s speeches usually included anecdotes and stories to drive home the point he was trying to make. Reagan was a plain spoken man which is what made him the Great Communicator he was. He understood better than anyone that the best way to reach the American people was not through political sermons or cold political analysis. You reach people by grasping and tugging at their emotions. Reagan’s stories did that.

Introduction
Skinner notes that when these manuscripts were uncovered in the Reagan Library, they were often accompanied by notes that verified the veracity of the stories Reagan presented as factual. Other stories, Skinner notes, were based on folklore even though Reagan told them as if they were true. Reagan sometimes confused anecdote with fact.

That sometimes Reagan mixed fantasy with reality is well known and well documented. That’s not the point, Skinner tells us. Reagan the man was and remains an enigma because he revealed so little of his genuine feelings. The window into the mind of Ronald Reagan, Skinner says, is in his stories. Whenever Reagan said, “That reminds me of. . .“ and launched into an anecdote or story, you knew he was revealing his true feelings on the matter at hand.

Life and Death
Reagan tells two stories dealing with death and how it affects us. One is inspirational and the other is poignantly tragic.

The first is about a seven year old boy dying of leukemia. The boy is suffering and wants to die. He tells the doctors to disconnect the equipment that is keeping him alive and even plans his own funeral. Before dying, he tells his family that he wants to die because he does not want to suffer anymore. He wants to go to heaven where he will be disconnected from his earthly body which is broken, but will live on with his spirit which is not. He is confident he will be able to see the lives of his loved ones unfold from heaven. Reagan’s account is documented with a news clip attached to the manuscript. He tell us that sorrow is our own for what we have lost. The dead have no sorrow for they have gone to a better place.

The second tale tells of a father writing to his son who is away at war. In a poem, the father expresses his regret that his distorted conception of manhood and masculinity never allowed him to hug his son or express love and affection. His love for his son comes through as he tells his son if he were here with him, he’d hug him and tell him how much he loved him and expresses regret for his cold and taciturn nature. The story concludes with Reagan telling us that the day the letter containing the poem was mailed, the man received a War Department telegram telling him his son had died.

I’m no psychologist, but I’ve read enough psychoanalysis of Ronald Reagan to wonder if he was not reaching out to his own children through this story. Reagan was emotionally detached from his children. He was not cold, but he was not close to them and he remained as much an enigma to them as to history.

Love and Compassion
Reagan tells two tales that deal with overcoming the odds against disease and injury rather than stories of love and compassion.

In the first tale, he recounts how Alexis de Toqueville observed that Americans look to themselves and their fellow Americans to help solve their problems rather than asking for the government. He then tells the tale of a young girl with leukemia who needed a bone marrow transplant, which was an experimental procedure at that time. The girl was from California, but the surgery was to be performed at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. People in Minnesota and California joined forces to raise more than $10,000 for the girl to have her surgery. The government did not help and did not need to.

The second tale is of a young man injured in a car accident. Doctors gave him no hope of recovery and he lay in a coma for almost a year. During that time, his fiancé refused to give up hope and visited him daily. As it turned out, he did recover and the couple married.

Faith and Religion
This chapter includes three essays on Christian faith and a letter to a nun Reagan wrote while serving as president.

In the first, he discusses his love of all things Christmas. He says, some complain of the crass commercialization of the holiday replacing its spirit. For Reagan, the decorations and displays warmed his heart and were part of the Christmas. He defines the root of his faith. Were there no such things as miracles, how, he asks, could a homeless carpenter wander the countryside for three years, preaching his faith and proclaim himself the son of God and start a whole new religion that has endured for 2,000 years? A superb question to put to atheists. . .

In his second essay, he critiques the claims of a scientist who claims that the some of the miracles found in the Bible can be explained away by mirages. This scientist stated that Moses parting the Red Sea was but the reflection of heat off of the desert – not real water. The same phenomena can explain the “illusion” of Christ walking on water. Reagan then goes on to quote the scripture in easily understood terms. The mirage did not sweep away Pharaoh’s men as they pursued the Hebrews. Christ walked upon the water to a boat tossed on heavy seas. Mirages do not toss boats. It will take more than a mirage to sweep away the claims of the best selling book of all time, claims Reagan.

In his third essay, Reagan talks about a group of Christian athletes who travel the country, playing college and pro basketball teams. They get paid little, but must spend halftime professing their faith to the crowd. Many of these young men gave up scholarships and lucrative pro money in the name of their faith.

The letter is written to a nun who had obviously written to congratulate Reagan on his re-election in 1984. In it, Reagan expresses his strong belief in intercessory prayer. Reagan says that he prays on behalf of others so much that he believes God says to himself, “Here he comes again!” He concludes by quoting Abraham Lincoln’s belief that no man can stand as president without the help of God.

Reagan’s strong statements of faith are probably genuine. Reagan was wont to profess faith while president. Yet, he was not a regular church goer as president, nor was he in civilian life. Contrary to popular belief, Reagan never introduced legislation or justified policy employing theology.

Women
In two essays on the subject of women, Reagan discusses how women are, by nature, peacemakers. Despite being regarded as the weaker sex, Reagan says it is the courage that comes naturally to women that make them peacemakers. Perhaps it was that belief that women are most prone to bring peace that he took the courageous and historic step of making Jean Kirkpatrick the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and appointing the first female Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor. It was in his strong belief in the necessary role women must play in the political and government process that Reagan was a progressive in the true sense of the word.

In his first essay, Reagan recounts a somewhat humorous story of a dinner taking place in a palace in India. As the diners enjoyed their repast, one of the Americans in attendance noticed that one of the servants placed a saucer of milk outside the door to the dining hall and left the door open. He knew that milk was used to lure cobras and that the serpent must be in the room. He feared moving lest he frighten the snake and cause himself or another diner to be bitten. Eventually, the snake made its way out from under the table. The man later asked the hostess how she knew the snake was in the room. She replied that it was lying on her feet during the meal.

His second essay tells of the courage of the women of Northern Ireland in the face of guerilla warfare in their country. The Irish Republican Army and their protestant counterparts too often considered children to be collateral damage in their war of terror against each other. Finally, the women had enough. Catholic and protestant women of Northern Ireland banded together and protested in the streets. They knew the feelings on both sides of the war over Northern Ireland were too powerful for them to stop it. But they demanded of their respective warriors respect the sanctity of life of children. It was a great risk, but the women prevailed.

Race Relations
Ronald Reagan was mindlessly derided as a racist by liberals of his day because he staunchly opposed race based solutions to race based problems. He saw the fundamental flaw of combating discrimination with reverse discrimination. While liberals may have mindlessly called Reagan a racist, those who knew him – including black liberals who knew him on a personal level -- knew differently. Reagan may have been the most colorblind president in history.

The first essay is an interview conducted by a sports program. It is a story that Reagan recounted in his autobiography and is often told by those who adore him. Reagan, as a young college football player, was shocked and dismayed that, in his home state of Illinois, racism existed. He found this out when his Eureka College football team tried to find a motel while playing in Illinois. Eureka had two black players on its team and no motel in the area would accept them. Reagan implored his coach to let the players stay in his parents’ home and to tell them that there simply wasn’t room. The young men stayed at Reagan’s home and the crisis was defused. According to Reagan, he did not know that his black friends were not fooled. The interviewer, who had spoken to one of the players involved, said the young man knew then as he knew today that he’d been refused a room. Reagan said he was surprised. I doubt this. Reagan often feigned ignorance of racial strife to demonstrate that he was above it. One can be quite confident that Reagan was aware his friends knew. That does not diminish Reagan’s progressive views on race in the era of Jim Crow.

The second essay is a radio eulogy of Gen. Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr, the first black four star general in the history of the United States. Rather than offering testimony to the greatness of the American melting pot that saw this man rise to this high rank, he offered testimony to the spirit of the man that was Gen. James – a man who would not let the ugly face of racism destroy his belief in the fundamental rightness of America and that for which she stands. James, as a young officer, had been denied entrance into officers clubs, despite his rank and his unabashed and undisputed heroism in battle. Gen. James was not ambivalent about racism. He knew it and experienced it. But he also knew America. James said of his country, "I fought in three wars and three more would not be too many to defend my country. I love America and as she has her ills and weaknesses, I’ll hold her hand.”

The third and final essay is yet another eulogy – this one for a San Diego police officer who was often part of Gov. Reagan’s protective detail when he visited the city. Reagan spoke of the man’s dedication to duty and to the people he knew growing up. He insisted on serving the poor neighborhood in which he grew up. Sometimes, he posted the bail of those he arrested, hoping that they would change their ways. He helped his neighbors by working on their cars – the cars upon which they depended to get them to and from work. He died of a rare disease at the young age of 42. Here, although he doesn’t say it, we see Reagan embrace compassion as part of conservatism – a vital component missing in many of today’s conservatives despite claims of compassionate conservatism. Not only that, Reagan never mentioned his race. He simply feted the life of a great man who lived a great life. Again, Reagan was colorblind. The man’s race didn’t figure into any equation in Reagan’s mind.

America
Ronald Reagan was the ultimate patriot. When America’s morale was low, it was Reagan who convinced us we could be great again. When we were victims, he lashed out at our enemies. When we were criticized abroad, he told the world we were the last, best hope for man on the face of the earth. In these essays, Reagan relates anecdotes that reflect his love of America and how others came to love it as much as he.

The first essay is about a young man by the name of Peter Johnson who, in 1973, decided to walk across America. It was not a marathon; he sought to promote no awareness of a social or political issue. Like many of the Vietnam era and the age of the hippies, he just started wandering. He walked from Connecticut to Oregon, taking a meandering course through the south and the southwest. Like many of his generation, Johnson didn’t care for America when he set out. When he waded into the Pacific Ocean five years later, joined by 150 people – ordinary Americans – he met on his journey. Each, in some small way, had lent him aid or assistance as he journeyed on God’s good graces across our country. He also discovered God and his good grace.

The second essay was written by a Canadian journalist in the 1970s, during Watergate and found new life during the impeachment of Bill Clinton. In 1973, as the world watched Watergate unfold and it seemed as if America was headed toward an ugly constitutional crisis on the heels of the Vietnam War, America’s morale was low and the opinion of it around the world had sunk to new lows. Canadian Gordon Sinclair took to the Canadian airwaves to extol American strength of character and charity. He talked of the valiant effort of our soldiers in World War II, the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe, the aid and assistance we lent countries in times of disaster. No other country, Sinclair pointed out, was so apt to step in and help in an international crisis. As Reagan notes at the beginning of the essay, it is right, proper, and sometimes patriotic to criticize government. But we, as Americans, can always be proud of ourselves as people and as a nation.

The third essay summarizes a capsulized summary of history called, There Once Was a Great Nation. It talked of its rise under the leadership of the hero of its independence. He then recounts the rise and eventual fall of that great nation under a burdensome and corrupt government. You believe he is talking about America, but it is the rise and fall of the Roman Empire he is recounting. Reagan believed that big government would forever be the doom of civilizations of the earth.

In fourth essay, Reagan described the early days of the healing process that followed the disaster in Vietnam. Vietnam was a subject little discussed in 1977. Reagan recounted how four Vietnam War veterans met by chance and ended up in Washington, asking for permission to return to Vietnam to help out a small village that was destroyed in the war. Reagan wrote the essay because he felt that it was unfair that, after President Carter provided amnesty to Vietnam draft dodgers, that those who ducked the war were getting all of the attention while those who fought were being ignored while America tried to forget that abortive war and its own bad behavior during those years.

The last essay in the chapter, America, is also about Vietnam. Reagan notes that the movie, The Deerhunter had won an Oscar for best picture. Some Hollywood elites were bitter because of its positive portrayal of the Vietnam veteran as a virtuous person and America as a virtuous nation. He called on Hollywood to make a movie about the Hanoi Hilton and the experiences of Captain John McCain who was roasting in a coffin sized box whilst Jane Fonda dined with North Vietnamese leaders. He wanted the world to know of the experience of Jeremiah Denton who spent six years in the Hanoi Hilton and was beaten into making a statement to Fonda and the world about how well he was being treated, all the while blinking his eyes in Morse Code the word, “torture.” Basically, Reagan was telling the Hollywood elite – people he knew too well – they could shove their self loathing up their un-American asses.

People
Reagan was called the Great Communicator because of his remarkable ability to engage people. He could engage mass audiences and he could engage them one on one. Reagan was fascinated by people, but was actually a shy man who revealed very little about himself to those closest to him. He often forgot the names of his closest advisors. But there were people who made an impression on Reagan and he recounts some of those people in this series of essays.

The first essay is about a brave University of California student who touched Reagan’s heart. Reagan was the governor who imposed tuition upon the students of California who before enjoyed a free college education at the various campuses of the U.C. He was hated for that and for his conservative politics when he was governor of California. One day, Reagan had to attend a board of regents meeting in San Diego. Students there devised a clever and effective means of protest. Instead of shouting at Reagan, they decided to line the sidewalks and remain silent as Reagan walked the 200 yards from his car to the building. Reagan felt the tension and admits he was intimidated. Just before he got to the building, one young woman stepped forward, extended her hand, and told Reagan how much she appreciated his leadership. Reagan said he could not reply for the lump in his throat and troopers whisked the girl away before he could get her name. Reagan says he never found out who that girl was, but that he would be forever grateful for her kind words.

His second essay extols the virtue of President Calvin Coolidge. Some historians blame Coolidge for setting the stage for the Great Depression (he actually tried to warn of its coming) and others claim that he simply did nothing while he was in office. He was mocked as “Silent Cal,” for his penchant for saying little in public. But, as Reagan notes, Coolidge turned debts into surpluses and presided over the largest economic expansion in American history to that point. America moved forward economically, technologically, and socially in the era of Calvin Coolidge. That is why Reagan feted him by hanging his portrait in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

Reagan enjoyed extolling the virtues of the American Dream and worked hard to convince Americans that it still existed even when President Carter told us we had a “crisis of confidence” in ourselves. The third essay is about a high school dropout who went on to serve in the Army. He returned from the service and decided to take courses to first get his GED and eventually his college diploma. He learned to play a musical instrument (Reagan never says which one) and played with his city’s philharmonic orchestra. He went on to form two successful business enterprises and become comfortably wealthy. Reagan saw all of this on the CBS News. The last line struck Reagan as the man told the world that anybody could do what he did if they would only take advantage of what was available to them in our great nation.

The last two essays are a two part story about a 27 year old man whose productive years seemed to be cut short when an industrial accident made him a paraplegic. After a period of feeling sorry for himself, this man decided to resume his hobby of riding horses. He found a horse that was yet unbroken. He then hired a blind horse trainer. Together, they trained the horse and the man took to touring the country, showing off his skills to the handicapped to show them that they need not be defined by what made them different.

Enter the big, bad government. This man only made enough on his shows to break even. He received a regular disability check, but the government cut that off because they deemed him a “performer” capable of earning a living. The story ends with the banks threatening to repossess his horse. Reagan derides the “computers and desk jockeys,” of the Social Security Administration for their lack of humanity and desire to crush a man who worked so hard to make something of what he thought was a ruined life.

Values and Virtues
Reagan holds forth on the values that are desirable in Americans. I doing this, he quotes the son of one of our greatest Americans, and then describes the business practices of one of America’s legendary entertainers who was an immigrant.

The first essay is about Charles Edison, the son of Thomas Edison. Reagan recounts how a reporter once asked Charles if his father had given him any important advice. Charles replied that he sought advice from his father, but his father was convinced that youth wouldn’t take advice; that youth had to learn lessons "on the battlefield of their own experience." One lesson that Thomas Edison imparted to young Charles was the importance of honor in all facets of life. A life that is lived honorably will be naturally fruitful and rewarding.

The second lesson is about Lawrence Welk. For my generation, and my parents' generation, Lawrence Welk, with his bubble machines and wacky tuxedos, was the punch line of a joke. But there is no doubt he was one of the most enduring figures in American cultural history, remaining popular from the Big Band era of music through the days of The Beatles and The Doors on Ed Sullivan. Reagan tells us that no musician has a contract with Lawrence Welk. If you were a talented musician or performer, willing to live by the values established by Lawrence Welk, you would be employed by Welk and paid handsomely with a nice pension, profit sharing, and benefits to boot. Reagan says that if anyone had spent time with Welk and his cadre of 50 performers, they would have found a strong family spirit of mutually supportive people.

Reagan’s final essay in the chapter is a tale common, but uplifting. A boy living in Seattle had cancer. While sick, he got to meet two famous football players: Jim Zorn, quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks and running back O.J. Simpson. Reagan said that this young man probably thought it was a special moment for him, but the moment was probably more special for Zorn and O.J. when they found out this kid played football – and started for his high school team – while undergoing treatment for cancer.

Human Nature, the Economy, and Progress
Ronald Reagan spent his entire political career railing against government intrusion into the lives of Americans. Reagan did not espouse these values because they fit some preconceived idea of what the Constitution says, like today’s doctrinaire Tea Party. He espoused these values and fought for them because they improved the human condition. Ronald Reagan didn’t preach constitutional principles. He simply sought to improve the human condition – something the modern Republican Party ought to re-examine.

The first essay is simply called, The Hen and is a parable on the nature of man to take the path of least resistance when it is offered. I believe my grandmother told me something very similar when I was in junior high school to demonstrate to me how welfare was killing America. For those of you not familiar with the story, a hen spends the entire summer growing grain, harvesting it, and baking bread while the other animals lie about and give the hen excuses as to why they can’t help. Then, when the bread is done, they all want to partake. The hen wants to keep all the bread since she worked for it, but the farmer (government) says you must give up half your bread to feed those who did not contribute.

The second essay is an example of an argument a socialist and a conservative might have. Reagan says today’s (read 1970s) socialist ignores the strength of the human spirit to achieve if it is set free to do so. While the above parable is brilliant in its simplicity, this essay reads more like a grade school screenplay. Sometimes event the brilliant miss the mark and Reagan’s simplistic argument fails to impress.

The third essay is entitled, Kettering, drawing its name from a former General Motors vice president, C.F. Kettering, who delivered a speech on how one generation builds upon the accomplishment of others. He goes on to show how the development of the radio (the modern means of mass communication at the time Kettering delivered his address) actually started before Christ when Greek philosopher, Thales of Miletus, discovered that rubbing together two pieces of amber created a force that would pick up straw – the discovery of electricity. Reagan’s use of the Kettering speech demonstrates what was at the core of Reagan’s foreign policy, his economic policy, and his social policy: that man, when left to his own devices, is capable of achieving great things. It was stories like that told by Mr. Kettering that Reagan kept in his head and could tell flawlessly on a moment’s notice.

A fourth essay is entitled, Pollution, but has very little to do with clean air or clean water. Rather, Mr. Reagan tries to demonstrate to a younger, pessimistic generation in the late 1970s that their ancestors did not have it so well. Pollution comes into play when Reagan talks about the coal burning furnaces with which every home was equipped and how every home belched coal smoke into the sky every night from autumn through summer. He goes on to talk about the unsanitary conditions of the outhouse and the rapid spread of disease in the prior generation. He concludes that perhaps life was not so simple before the mechanized age.

The former essay is a poor segue into the final essay which is entitled Freedom. Here, Reagan tries to make the case that in the good old days, things were much simpler. The good old days were before government placed regulations on everything. He talks about how there was no government mandated age for a driver’s license. In his day, if you drove well enough for your father to trust you with his car, you drove well enough for the motoring public. He points out that after he graduated from college, with the Great Depression in full swing, he had to take a job doing construction. He’d need half a dozen licenses to do today what he did to get by during the depression. He concludes by saying, “We are all stamped – ‘Property of the United States Government. Do Not Fold, Bend, or Mutilate.’”

Reagan’s Own Life in Stories and Humor
Reagan loved telling stories about Hollywood and the glamorous life he led while working as an actor. He also enjoyed the folkish stories he told of his youth. History has shown us that Reagan had a troubled youth with a ne’er do well father who was an alcoholic. Reagan never discussed that. He chose to remember his youth as a idyllic time.

In a letter to a constituent written in 1984, Reagan describes his youth in those idyllic terms and the essay is called, Reagan’s Huck Finn Years. Reagan attributes his family’s nomadic ways to his father trying to achieve upward mobility in the shoe industry. There is some truth to this as Jack Reagan was always chasing the next big job and moved the family all over Illinois. But Reagan omits that his father lost jobs because of his alcoholism. One can hardly blame him for this omission. I knew children of alcoholics when I was growing up. It was always something that the family believed it was keeping secret. I’m sure the Reagans were no different.

The second essay is entitled Reagan’s First Jobs and is also written in 1984. Reagan tells again the story about working construction and tells how he ended up working as a lifeguard. He then talks about how he got into radio which was his dream. He hiked all over Illinois trying to see program managers to demonstrate his talent. Nobody would even see him since he didn’t have any experience. He finally got a program director at WOC in Davenport to listen to him retell the play by play of a Eureka College football game. He got the job rebroadcasting Cubs games as they came into him via teletype. Reagan’s public career was launched.

Ronald Reagan loved to tell jokes. At no point was this more evident than when he was shot and quipped with hospital staff until he was sedated. In 1986, he was asked by a reporter what three jokes he enjoyed the most. He replied, “I assume he [Ullman] means stories suitable for speeches.” Reagan was quite fond of the raunchy joke and he and Tip O’Neill use to exchange them every time they saw each other. Reagan was quite fond of Irishman jokes.

In 1937, Reagan’s hometown newspaper asked him to send back regular updates on how his Hollywood career as a contract player was going. Reagan writes to his hometown paper through 1937, telling them about how tough the job was sometimes, how he got to meet Olivia de Havilland, and how uncomfortable he was seeing himself on screen for the first time when he had to attend a movie premier.

What comes out of all these essays is Reagan’s simplistic – sometimes excessively simplistic views on life. Coolidge read Plato. Reagan read Sports Illustrated. Nixon read Cicero. Reagan read the funny pages.

One should not sell Reagan short, claiming he lacked intellectual curiosity. Reagan was an avid reader of newspapers and contemporary political thought. He was an intelligent man gifted with incredible insight into the American character. Just like Kennedy (who was no Rhodes Scholar like Bill Clinton), Reagan proved a man need not be an intellectual giant to be a great leader.

He was called the Great Communicator. His detractors would say he was great at reading a script. Even a cursory examination of Reagan reveals that there was much more depth to Reagan’s skill. Like Kennedy, Reagan was a gifted writer. Kennedy’s detractors will point to Ted Sorensen as the genius behind Kennedy’s eloquent prose and verbiage. Sorensen was a great speechwriter, but it was Kennedy who put the flourish and the style into Sorensen’s rough drafts. Kennedy almost always knew what he wanted to say and just how to say it.

Reagan was very similar. Reagan employed speechwriters, but he saved the writing of the most important speeches for his own hand. As one can see in the marked up rough drafts of the essays, Reagan put a great deal of thought into what he wrote and usually exercised good judgment in his editing. Like Kennedy, Reagan understood words. He knew how to deploy the English language for maximum benefit.

I would point to this book when I hear Reagan’s intellect derided. Yes, Reagan had a simplistic view of America and the world. Sometimes, those views were old fashioned. Sometimes he mixed anecdote with fact. But he was a smart, intelligent man gifted with the ability to write and speak. I would challenge any Reagan detractor to read these essays. They may not change their views of Reagan’s politics or principles, but they would dispel any notion of Reagan as an intellectual lightweight.