The eagerly anticipated fourth volume in Robert A. Caro’s award-winning and best-selling “The Years of Lyndon Johnson” biography will be published next May, it was announced today by Sonny Mehta, Chairman and Editor in Chief of Knopf.
“This is the work of a great biographer writing at the very height of his powers,” Mehta said. “When I read the manuscript, I knew we had to publish this new book as quickly as possible. It is a riveting look at a pivotal period in our nation’s history – told for the first time as only Caro is capable of doing. His research is peerless; his knowledge of history exceptional; and his gifts for telling a story unrivaled. This book will be hailed as one of his finest works.”
The Passage of Power continues the story told in Master of the Senate (2002), Means of Ascent (1990), and The Path to Power (1982) – books that have been honored with a National Book Award, a Pulitzer Prize, and two awards from the National Book Critics Circle. Collectively, they have sold one and a half million copies, and the last two were #1 New York Times best sellers.
In The Passage of Power, Caro focuses on five crucial years in the life of Lyndon Johnson – from late 1958 when he began campaigning for the presidency, to early 1964, after he was thrust into office following the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Based on interviews with primary sources and on thousands of original documents, Caro describes the volatile relations between Johnson and John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert. He writes of the years of frustration and humiliation Johnson endured as vice president. He tells the story of the Kennedy assassination from the viewpoint of Lyndon Johnson. And he shows how this master of politics grasped the reins of power in a time of great crisis and immediately took command with unprecedented skill – and extraordinary results.
“For almost three decades,” Mehta said, “Robert Caro has been working on one of the most iconic biographies of our time. The result has been three signature works, and now this fourth, a breathtaking work of history. There will be a fifth volume, though we have no timetable for it yet, only the expectation that it will be as remarkable as the first four.”
Knopf has set a first printing of 300,000 copies for The Passage of Power; it will also be published as an eBook. Master of the Senate, the most recent volume in the series, is already available as an eBook. On November 23, the first two volumes, Means of Ascent and The Path to Power, will be published as eBooks, marking the first time all of the existing volumes in Caro’s epic biography will be available in digital format.
Contact:
Paul Bogaards | 212-572-2177 | pbogaards@randomhouse.com
So much yes!!!!!
Anxiously awaiting. Is it May yet?
The most anticipated release of my life!
Will this please be made available as an audiobook on audible like ‘Master of the Senate’ for the benefit of dyslexic Caro-acolytes too please?! And might it be possible to get The Power Broker, Path to Power and Means of Ascent as audiobooks too one day please? Thanks!
I was overwhelmed by Mr. Caro’s The Power Broker as a college freshman in 1981. I was ecstatic the next year to learn of this towering match among writer, subject, and publisher. It’s amazing that a third of a century has passed and the story’s still unfolding. Next May can’t come quickly enough.
I am hopeful that this book will examine LBJ’s relationship with Cliff Carter, Billie Sol Estes, Bobby Baker and most importantly Malcolm Everett Wallace. I will be very interested in seeing if the ‘Estes Documents’ are discussed or even mentioned. Hopefully Robert Caro will put all of these things in their true historical place.
Glen Sample
http://home.earthlink.net/~sixthfloor/estes.htm
From what I have read about Lyndon Johnson, he was a truly complex human being. I thank him for signing into law, the Civil Rights Bill of 1964, and the Voting Rights Bill in 1965.
I look forward to reading Mr. Caro’s next volume about the late President Lyndon Baines Johnson.
I would sacrifice a year of my life for the sheer joy of reading Caro’s work. Thank you, Robert. (Ina, too!)
Words escape me. Now the terrible choice of getting the ebook (ephemeral, digital but FAST) or the hardcover…two days later. A feast, a *feast*. I think I will have to get a leave of absence, take the summer off and hide out at the cabin to devour it.
In 2010 I found out I had prostate cancer. One of the subjects that concerned me at the outset was lasting long enough to read the next installment of Caro’s LBJ. I’m doing fine now and I see the book finally about to arrive. My local small bookstore has had a copy on order for a month.
In 2010 I found out I had prostate cancer. One of the subjects that concerned me at the outset was lasting long enough to read the next installment of Caro’s LBJ.
I’ve been waiting a long time for the next volume. Finally it’s almost here…
Robert Caro and David Halberstam will be remembered 200 years from now as the greatest chroniclers of the second half of 20th Century America, both for their literary achievement and for their contribution to American History.
Bob Caro, please eat your Wheaties so that you will be around to publsh the fifth volume of your masterpiece in a few years.