We are winding down our preview of the new (Fall) issue of the Claremont Review of Books with our friend Tevi Troy’s review of Craig Fehrman’s Author In Chief: The Untold Story or our Presidents and the Books They Wrote. The review is short. It is educational. It is entertaining.
It even made me laugh: “Ronald Reagan left office as a popular president beloved by his supporters. Yet he phoned in the writing of Ronald Reagan: An American Life (1990), and readers could tell: the ghost-written volume lacked his authentic voice.” Tevi adds:
Reagan himself even joked about the book’s authorship, saying at a book launch press conference, “I hear it’s terrific. Maybe someday I’ll read it.” Funny perhaps, but not exactly what publishers want to hear from a multi-million-dollar author.
Tevi is himself a presidential historian. His review presents another case in which the book is perfectly matched with the reviewer. Tevi’s review is “Presidential library.”
We wind up our CRB preview tomorrow with a bonus review by our own Steve Hayward, yet another case…
