When Sadness Comes (2009)

Nine books on Richard Nixon that I'd ordered from AbeBooks arrived in the mail yesterday. I set a new standard for stupidity by accidently ordering something (Richard Reeves' President Nixon: Alone in the White House) I owned not once but twice already--a copy on the shelf, and another one boxed away with some other duplicate books and movies. Weirder still, of the nine books, the Reeves turned out to be the only one that was damaged; as soon as I removed it from the box, pages started falling out. This may end up being lucky--if I can get a full refund, I'm off the hook. But if, as my initial contact with the seller would indicate, they're expecting me to spend five dollars shipping the book back in order to get a refund of six, obviously I won't follow through, in which case I'll have taken that standard of stupidity to a new level still.

I'm not exactly sure when I started collecting books about, by, or related to Nixon. When he died in '94, I think I'd already started; I vaguely recall it occurring to me that I'd missed my chance to get a book signed. (And I still believe that Nixon was so in need of validation that a friendly letter and some return postage would have been enough to make that happen, at least in the days before eBay.) In any event, it was somewhere around that time that I consciously decided that, so long as it was reasonably priced (under $10, let's say), I'd buy any and every Nixon book I came across.

Whenever Nixon's name comes up in conversation with someone, and I mention the books, and relate my fascination with the man, I always feel the need to immediately explain myself. I'm always sensitive to the fact that the assumption will be that I'm someone who views Nixon as a heroic figure, as somebody who was done in by the media, the counterculture, intellectuals, the Kennedys, liberals, etc., etc. (basically, that my view of Nixon is no different than what Nixon's view of Nixon was). No--my fascination, I go on to clarify, can instead be attributed to two things.

First, there's the simple fact that Nixon was in office when I first paid any attention at all to politics--I sat in front of the TV as a 12-year-old and taped his resignation speech on a cassette recorder--and, even more than that, that he was absolutely central to a moment in time, the early and mid-70s, that continues to this day to be of such paramount importance to my own imagination. So much of the music and so many of the films that I love from that time were either explicitly about Nixon, or implicitly about him. He was there in Michael Corleone, in Travis Bickle, in "Ambulance Blues," in "Smiling Faces Sometimes," in Nashville, in Welfare--he was lurking everywhere. And when the art wasn't so good, and a world was conjured up where he and the realities of the day were seemingly absent--The Brady Bunch, Love Story, K-Tel--that meant something too.

More personally, I've long recognized that I share in some of Nixon's worst character flaws. I won't dwell on that too much here, other than to scan a little chart I once drew up for Martina and Kay's Big Secrets #2, a fanzine put out by Martina Eddy in the mid-90s, in which I contrasted myself with Nixon and LBJ.

I was too hard on myself--I definitely don't view myself as a manipulative person today, and I'm not really sure why I thought I was at the time. As for the rest, well, much less so now than 15 years ago, but I can't say that it's not all some part of who I am.

Taken together--Nixon as part of my personal timeline, and also as a mirror into a corner of my own less-than-admirable self--I do maintain an unusual bond with him. It helps that I'm about five years too young to share in the visceral hatred of Nixon that demarcates the half-generation ahead of me--if I'd been 17 in '74 instead of 12, I doubt that bond would exist. And it helps even more that I've got some emotional and geographical distance as a Canadian. If I'd lost a family member or a friend in Vietnam, I'm pretty sure the visceral hatred would be there. (As I mentioned somewhere over in the Obama blogging, Palin has helped me to understand--to experience in the here and now--some of that Nixon-hatred.)

Every January 9, on Nixon's birthday, I show my students that amazing slow zoom that concludes the first Frost interview--the shot that culminates with Nixon finally, after five agonizing minutes of stumbling and rambling and self-serving legalisms, coming as close to an apology as he likely ever came. (I first provide as much context as I reasonably can in a brief introduction, else I'm not sure the clip would mean anything.) Greil Marcus once compared the intensity of The Godfather's slow zoom into Michael as he formulates the murder of McCluskey and Sollazzo to a similar shot in Persona where Bibi Andersson recalls her sexual encounter on the beach. I'd add the closing shot in Long Day's Journey into Night ("That was in the winter of senior year...") as being close to their equal, and I'd say the Nixon zoom is even more mesmerizing than all three. My students almost always remain quiet and focussed for the duration of the shot; maybe they're connecting with something close to what I connected with at their age.

The books. You can argue against a few of these as being Nixon books--e.g., Centre Stage, a biography of Helen Gahagan Douglas, or Before the Storm, Rick Perlstein's account of Goldwater's ascension and run for the Presidency in '64--but I tend to include anything where Nixon figures prominently in the events or life being chronicled. In Douglas's case, it's an easy call--whatever historical interest she retains today resides almost entirely in her losing Senate race against Nixon in 1950. Ditto the books by Dean, Haldeman, Erlichman, and others. Nixon's centrality to the lives of people like Chambers or Ellsberg is perhaps less obvious, but to me they belong.

A Tissue of Lies: Nixon vs. Hiss – Morton Levitt & Michael Levitt

Abuse of Power – Stanley I. Kutler

All the President’s Men – Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward

An American Life: One Man's Road to Watergate – Jeb Stuart Magruder

An American Melodrama: The Presidential Campaign of 1968 – Lewis Chester, Godfrey Hodgson & Bruce Page

An Evening with Richard Nixon – Gore Vidal

Archibald Cox: Conscience of a Nation – Ken Gormley

Before the Storm – Rick Perlstein

Being Nixon: A Man Divided – Evan Thomas

Beyond Peace – Richard Nixon

Blind Ambition – John Dean

Breach of Faith – Theodore H. White

Center Stage – Ingrid Winther Scobie

Conspiracy: Nixon, Watergate, and Democracy's Defenders – P. O'Connell Pearson

Crazy Rhythm – Leonard Garment

Dirty Tricks: Nixon, Watergate and the CIA –Shane O'Sullivan

Exile – Robert Sam Anson

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 – Hunter S. Thompson

Feiffer on Nixon – Jules Feiffer

From: the President – Bruce Oudes (editor)

Great Society: A New History – Amity Shlaes

Hubris and the Presidency – Richard Curtis

I Gave Them a Sword: Behind the Scenes of the Nixon Interviews – David Frost (hardcover & paperback)

Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage – Jeffrey Frank

In Search of Deep Throat – Leonard Garment

Johnson, Nixon, and the Doves – Melvin Small

Just Plain Dick – Kevin Mattson

Kennedy & Nixon – Christopher Matthews

King Richard – Michael Dobbs

Kissinger – Marvin Kalb & Bernard Kalb

Kissinger – Walter Isaacson

Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House – Mark Felt & John O'Connor

Mayday 1971 – Lawrence Roberts

Mrs. Nixon – Ann Beattie

1999 – Richard Nixon

1960: LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon – David Pietrusza

Nixon Agonistes – Garry Wills

Nixon: A Life – Jonathan Aitken

Nixon and Kissinger – Robert Dallek

Nixon at the Movies – Mark Feeney

Nixon in China – Margaret MacMillan (hardcover & paperback)

Nixon in Winter – Monica Crowley

Nixon off the Record – Monica Crowley

Nixon: Ruin and Recovery 1973-1990 – Stephen E. Ambrose

Nixon: The Education of a Politician 1913-1962 – Stephen E. Ambrose

Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician 1962-1972 – Stephen E. Ambrose

Nixon's Darkest Secrets – Don Fulsom

Nixon's Enemies – Kenneth Franklin Kurz

Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image – David Greenberg

Nixonland – Rick Perlstein

No More Vietnams – Richard Nixon (hardcover & paperback)

Observing the Nixon Years – Jonathan Schell

One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon – Tim Weiner

One of Us – Tom Wicker

Papers on the War – Daniel Ellsberg

Pardon Me, Mr. President – Ranan R. Lurie

Playing with Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics – Lawrence O'Donnell

Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson, and the Rise of Washington's Scandal Culture – Mark Feldstein

Power and the Presidency – Robert A. Wilson (editor)

President Nixon: Alone in the White House – Richard Reeves

President Nixon’s 24 Hours in Warsaw – Stanislaw Glabinski

President Nixon’s Psychiatric Profile – Eli S. Chesen

Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership with Reflections on Johnson and Nixon – Richard E. Neustadt

Recollections of a Life – Alger Hiss

Report of the County Chairman – James Michener

Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full – Conrad Black

Richard Milhous Nixon – Roger Morris

Richard Nixon and His America – Herbert S. Parmet

Richard Nixon: An Oliver Stone Film – Eric Hamburg (editor)

Richard Nixon: The Man Behind the Mask – Gary Allen

Richard Nixon: The Shaping of His Character – Fawn M. Brodie

RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon – Richard Nixon

Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers – Daniel Ellsberg

Seize the Moment – Richard Nixon

Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate – Bob Woodward

Silent Coup – Len Colodny & Robert Gettlin

Six Crises – Richard Nixon

Stonewall – Richard Ben Veniste & George Frampton, Jr.

The Agony of the G.O.P. 1964 – Robert D. Novak

The American President – William E. Leuchtenburg

The Arrogance of Power – Anthony Summers

The Contender – Irwin F. Gellman

The Conviction of Richard Nixon – James Reston, Jr.

The Day the Presses Stopped – David Rudenstine

The End of a Presidency – New York Times staff

The Ends of Power – H.R. Haldeman

The Fall of Richard Nixon – Tom Brokaw

The Final Days – Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward

The Forty Years War: The Rise and Fall of the Neocons, from Nixon to Obama – Len Colodny & Tom Shachtman

The Greatest Comeback – Patrick J. Buchanan

The Haldeman Diaries – H.R. Haldeman

The Impeachment of Richard Nixon – Leonard Lurie

The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan – Rick Perlstein

The King and Us – Paul Conrad

The Last of the President's Men – Bob Woodward

The Lonely Lady of San Clemente – Lester David

The Making of the President 1960 – Theodore H. White (hardcover & paperback)

The Making of the President 1968 – Theodore H. White

The Making of the President 1972 – Theodore H. White

The Nixon Administration and the Death of Allende’s Chile – Jonathan Haslam

The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It – John Dean

The Nixons: First Families – Cass R. Sandak

The Palace Guard – Dan Rather & Gary Paul Gates

The Pentagon Papers

The Public Burning – Robert Coover

The President and the Apprentice – Irwin F. Gellman

The Presidents Club – Nancy Gibbs & Michael Duffy

The President's Man: The Memoirs of Nixon's Trusted Aide – Dwight Chapin

The Price of Power – Seymour M. Hersh

The Real Nixon – Bela Kornitzer

The Real War – Richard Nixon

The Right and the Power – Leon Jaworski

The Secret Man – Bob Woodward

The Selling of the President 1968 – Joe McGinniss

The Strange Case of Richard Milhous Nixon – Jerry Voorhis

The Unholy Hymnal – Albert E. Kahn (editor)

The Watergate: Inside America's Most Infamous Address – Joseph Rodota

The Watergate Girl: My Fight for Truth and Justice Against a Criminal President – Jill Wine-Banks

The White House Transcripts

The White House Years: Triumph and Tragedy – Ollie Atkins

Three Days at Camp David: How a Secret Meeting in 1971 Transformed the Global Economy – Jeffrey E. Garten

Tricky Dick: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Richard M. Nixon – Roger Stone

U.S. v. Richard M. Nixon – Frank Mankiewicz

Very Strange Bedfellows – Jules Witcover

Washington Journal – Elizabeth Drew

Watergate – Fred Emery

Watergate – Lewis Chester, Cal McCrystal, Stephen Aris & William Shawcross

Whittaker Chambers – Sam Tanenhaus

Wild Man: The Life and Times of Daniel Ellsberg – Tom Wells

With Nixon – Raymond Price

Without Honor – Jerry Zeifman

Witness to Power – John Ehrlichman

Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate – Alicia C. Shepard

Wounded Titans: American Presidents and the Perils of Power – Max Lerner

(Obviously this is all just a very calculated scheme to get anyone who knows me to get out there and start searching for books that aren't on the list. How very Nixon of me--maybe I'd better rethink the manipulative part.)