05/03/2021
Ginsberg, a corporate executive and former Clinton administration official, debuts with an entertaining group portrait of nine U.S. presidents and their best friends. All of these friendships are marked by “deep, abiding affection between the two individuals,” according to Ginsberg, who details how some changed policies and bolstered careers, while others damaged reputations. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson’s friendship lasted more than 50 years and produced more than 1,250 letters. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s campaign biography of Franklin Pierce helped his friend win the presidency, but led to fierce criticism from the author’s “abolitionist peer group.” Edward House was Woodrow Wilson’s closest adviser and the architect of his foreign policy, until the two men had a falling out over the terms of the Paris Peace conference (First Lady Edith Wilson’s dislike of House didn’t help matters). Margaret “Daisy” Suckley didn’t advise Franklin Roosevelt, but served as his confidante and archivist, while Cuban-American banker Charles Gregory “Bebe” Rebozo got branded as Richard Nixon’s “bagman” during the Watergate scandal. Ginsberg’s succinct and lucid profiles are buoyed by colorful insider details, including Vernon Jordan’s joke to Bill Clinton about why he refused to take golf lessons (“I’m just trying to destroy one more stereotype about blacks, that we’re all great athletes”). Readers will delight in this intriguing look at the human side of the presidency. (July)
"Intimate...Gary Ginsberg chronicles the unelected yet undeniably powerful people who shape presidencies...advisers of presidents with all-access passes to the Oval [who] can make or break legacies."—New York Times
"Everyone needs a BFF, especially people in high places: someone to lean on in good times and bad. [An] entertaining and enlightening romp through interpersonal presidential relationships."—USA Today
"Gary Ginsberg has brought us a fresh, fascinating and irresistible account of nine presidential relationships that helped to change history. FIRST FRIENDS demonstrates that one of the best ways of understanding the presidents of our past is to discover their relationships with intimate friends, and the author tells us many important things we did not know before.”—Michael Beschloss, New York Times bestselling author of PRESIDENTS OF WAR
“One of the most important roles in any administration is that of First Friend, the person a president can trust completely and be relaxed around. It’s a wonderful idea for a book, and with his great research and personal feel for true friendship, Gary Ginsberg has woven together fascinating stories and memorable insights. His lessons are important not just for studying the presidency, but for understanding leadership and life.”—Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of LEONARDO DA VINCI
“Gary Ginsberg takes a fascinating and utterly original look at the most crucial of questions: How do we best understand those who occupy our highest office, and the first friends who supported them?"—Malcolm Gladwell, #1 New York Times bestselling author of TALKING TO STRANGERS
“Ginsberg has crafted an insightful series of biographies, showing just how these friendships thrived and survived and were consequential for the nation’s history.” —Booklist (starred review)
“First Friends … paints a crisp, well-proportioned portrait of an otherwise under-considered area of presidential history.”—National Review
“This is...the book you want to read this summer.”—Fareed Zakaria, Fareed Zakaria GPS
"Even if you're an avid reader of presidential biographies, you'll find yourself saying, 'Who knew?' all the way through FIRST FRIENDS. Gary Ginsberg combed through diaries, letters and interviews with an investigator's eye, teasing out personal details about the intimacies of nine presidents and their best friends. It is one of the best reads of the genre, rich with well-told anecdotes, new angles on critical historical events and evidence of the vital importance of friendship for presidents—and all of us. This book is a joy to read."—Lesley Stahl
"FIRST FRIENDS is an overdue reminder that deep friendship has always played a priceless role in shaping the contours of history. It gives us a fresh reminder of the power of relationships." —Tom Brokaw
“Delicious, charming and original, this examination of largely unexplored terrain—presidents and their best friends—packs a historical punch.”—Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal columnist and bestselling author of THE TIME OF OUR LIVES
"This book was a wonderful surprise for it is engaging, entertaining and informative. Gary Ginsberg has opened an entire new genre and important area of presidential study—their close friends. This is an insightful look at presidents from the point of view of those who can have even more influence on them than their top advisers. Gary's reporting shines fresh light on the workings of the highest political office in our government. Best of all, it is a fun read."—John W. Dean, Nixon White House Counsel
“What a great book! I loved it!”—Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, Morning Joe
“I have to say, this subject is so fertile, a great subject for a book. And the examples [Gary Ginsberg] chose are phenomenal.”—John Berman, CNN New Day
“The author wraps history and humanity in a sparkling package."—Kitty Kelley, Washington Independent Review of Books
“A fresh, well-written take on the lives of our presidents.” —Kirkus
“Readers will delight in this intriguing look at the human side of the presidency.”—Publishers Weekly
2021-05-18
A Clinton administration insider delivers a fruitful survey of the roles that close friends have played throughout presidential history.
Ginsberg comes to his subject by way of a long-ago spell of volunteering for the presidential campaign of Gary Hart, who had one well-known confidant in actor Warren Beatty and a lesser-known one in old friend and chief of staff Billy Shore, who “seemed to be Hart’s alter ego, someone with the right combination of intensity yet inner calm to keep an often pensive candidate switched on.” So it is across the span of presidencies: Thomas Jefferson had his Billy Shore in fellow Virginian James Madison, who himself would become president but who contented himself in remaining in Jefferson’s shadow even as he made substantial contributions to the Constitution. Woodrow Wilson had his “First Friend,” as Ginsberg dubs the occupant of that unofficial but influential role, in a diminutive Texan named Edward Mandell House, whose views neatly aligned with Wilson’s in most regards and who hand-picked many of the players in the Wilson administration. So it was with Vernon Jordan, Bill Clinton’s closest friend, who served numerous functions, from helping select staff members to warding off a post–Lewinsky affair threat of divorce on the part of the first lady. Perhaps most affecting in this series of portraits is, curiously enough, Richard Nixon’s friendship with Bebe Rebozo, a Cuban exile and influential banker who was seemingly glad to play “a subservient role” but who also knew how to deal with Nixon’s dark moods. Ginsberg does nothing to improve Nixon’s reputation as he recounts how the president eventually brought the straight-arrow Rebozo into the criminal conspiracy that ended his tenure in the White House—with Rebozo urging Nixon not to resign until the very end. There’s no real thesis in Ginsberg’s capably spun story, but there are plentiful insights.
A fresh, well-written take on the lives of our presidents.
This audiobook makes the case that U.S. presidents benefit from having close confidants. Harry Truman had Eddie Jacobson, his former business partner; FDR had Daisy Suckley, a distant cousin; JFK had David Ormsby-Gore, an English diplomat; and Franklin Pierce had Nathaniel Hawthorne, his college classmate and, later, campaign biographer, who, curiously, maintained his loyalty to the much maligned president. Though listeners may not be as drawn to all the presidents’ stories, there are enough anecdotes and insights to stick with these chronologically arranged portraits through the last, most complex, one, that of Vernon Jordan—Bill Clinton’s dear friend and apologist. The audiobook demonstrates that, as with regular folk, presidents do best when those around them care more about their friendship than the agenda at hand. L.W.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
This audiobook makes the case that U.S. presidents benefit from having close confidants. Harry Truman had Eddie Jacobson, his former business partner; FDR had Daisy Suckley, a distant cousin; JFK had David Ormsby-Gore, an English diplomat; and Franklin Pierce had Nathaniel Hawthorne, his college classmate and, later, campaign biographer, who, curiously, maintained his loyalty to the much maligned president. Though listeners may not be as drawn to all the presidents’ stories, there are enough anecdotes and insights to stick with these chronologically arranged portraits through the last, most complex, one, that of Vernon Jordan—Bill Clinton’s dear friend and apologist. The audiobook demonstrates that, as with regular folk, presidents do best when those around them care more about their friendship than the agenda at hand. L.W.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
