Huey long biography book

Huey Long

May 22,

This was a major investment of my precious personal time, but I’m glad I did. My reading habits are on weekends and in bed, but this dense tome was especially difficult late at night, after long day of work, with its long chapters and tedious details. Of course, baseball season has started, so I’m also losing time in the evenings watching my Saint Louis Cardinals. And I made strawberry freezer jam last weekend because, as everyone knows, only locally grown berries are worth eating and they are only shortly in season (I grew up on a strawberry farm and know a thing or two from my Dad’s enterprise). My work on the vaccine for the pandemic, along with our other new drugs in development, is also exhausting, taxing my creative energy from some of my loves, e.g. reading. But, I did enjoy this book and must acknowledge it as a remarkable achievement in scholarship. And it was entertaining too, as the author based a good deal on personal interviews with people who lived and worked with the flesh and blood Huey Long. Williams, the author, also consumed vast quantities of newspapers, no doubt toiling in microfiche back in , and read all the key sources. It must have taken thousands of hours to write this book, itself weighing in at almost pages in my edition. Today I write, gnawing stomach (I’m not hungry normally till noon), stiff and aching in the arthritic joints, but laying this down for the record. Someone, someday, may stumble across my printed review in the book itself, lost deep in my pile of books. I write, in my clumsy way, for my own peace of mind, not caring (too much) if it is lost in obscurity. This puerile, self-serving diatribe is annoying, is it not? I think of my grandparents’ passionate letters back and forth, where did they go? Will anyone appreciate their brilliance and intensity so many years ago?

Huey Long was one of a kind. Or, probably more accurately, was one of those rare breeds who is innately intelligent in manipulation of

Huey Long (biography)

biography by T. Harry Williams

Huey Long () is a biography of Louisiana Governor and US Senator Huey Long written by historian T. Harry Williams. The work was well received, winning a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award.

Writing

Williams spent 12 years writing and researching Huey Long in order to write the page work. Due to the lack of documents regarding Long, Williams collected oral history. Beginning in , Williams interviewed those who had known Long. He outlined his work in a address to the Southern Historical Association.

The work is sympathetic to Long, painting him as a tragic figure and emphasizing his leftist leanings over his often claimed fascist tendencies. According to Kirkus Reviews, Williams "made pretty darn sure that his is going to be the definitive biography of Long." Williams reportedly regarded Huey Long as "the ultimate writing endeavor of his life."

Critical reception

The work was a popular bestseller and well-received by critics. In addition to garnering Williams the National Book Award for History and Biography, the work won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.

References

^ "Huey Long". Kirkus Reviews. Archived from the original on December 24, Retrieved June 25,
^Goodman Jr., George (July 7, ). "T. Harry Williams, scholar, Dies; Huey Long Book Won a Pulitzer". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 9, Retrieved June 9,
^ "T. Harry Williams: A Remembrance". VQR. Autumn Archived from the original on February 25, Retrieved March 2,
^"Huey Long". National Book Foundation. Archived from the original on November 30, Retrieved March 2,
^"Huey Long, by T. Harry Williams (Knopf)". The Pulitzer Prizes. Archived from the original on January 11, Retrieved

Best book on huey long

The Kingfish and His Realm

Born in rural Winn Parish, Louisiana, Huey P. Long grew up to become the most influential governor the state of Louisiana has ever known. Indeed, he commanded a power base that ultimately made him virtual dictator of his home state. The story of Long’s remarkable life, from his turn-of-the-century upbringing to his death at the hands of an assassin in , fascinates students of Louisiana politics still.

In The Kingfish and His Realm, William Ivy Hair carefully sets Long and his regime in the context of the history of Louisiana and the South. He provides both a new biography of Long and a thoroughgoing treatment of his social, political, and economic environment in light of the latest scholarship.

The result is a view of Huey Long that dispels many of the myths that have surrounded him and also challenges T. Harry Williams’ influential interpretation. Hair emphasizes Huey’s darker side, portraying him as a gifted, charismatic leader who craved power above all else—the more of it the better.

From childhood, Long believed that he could become president of the United States, and almost all of his actions were taken with that goal in mind. By the early s, he thought the presidency was within reach. The book’s detailed and convincing picture of Louisiana as an impoverished, underdeveloped state rife with complex social and class-based tensions goes far toward explaining how this ruthless, supremely energetic, power-hungry man was able to realize such grand political dreams at so young an age.

When the forty-two-year-old Long was gunned down on September 8, , it ended his drive for the White House but not his influence in Louisiana. Even today, more than half a century after his death, when political pundits no longer speak in terms of Longs and anti-Longs, Huey remains a larger-than-life icon in the state—and the most controversial character in its colorful history. The Kingfish and His Realm may not end the controversy, but it does

Huey p long biography