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St. Louis Post Dispatch, October 15, 2003
Anecdotes Relate Epic Friendship of FDR, Churchill
by Harry Levins Post-Dispatch Senior Writer
The title characters of "Franklin and Winston" are, of course, America's Franklin D. Roosevelt and Britain's Winston S. Churchill. The book's subtitle spells out its approach: "An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship."
In short, "Franklin and Winston" is not another historical account of the
geopolitical dealings between the two men in World War II. Lord knows, we
already have account after account of The Big Picture, starting with Churchill's
own war memoirs.
Instead, author Jon Meacham - he's the managing editor of Newsweek magazine -
revisits the men as personalities, and as friends, albeit friends whose ties
occasionally grew tattered. Any reader who has plowed through The Big Picture
volumes will find little or nothing new in "Franklin and Winston." Even so, the
book is warm and delightful.
It teems with anecdotal treasures - Roosevelt's dalliance with Lucy Mercer,
for example, and Churchill's quirky brilliance, as expressed in off-the-cuff
mots. These gems have long been part of the public record. But in the more
serious works, they pop up only here and there. In Meacham's book, they're the
very core.
And "Franklin and Winston" has its serious side, too - the gradual slippage
of Churchill's influence with Roosevelt as the United States and the Soviet
Union came to dominate the alliance. Although Churchill grew frustrated, hurt
and angry, he swallowed hard and soldiered on. Indeed, although Meacham portrays
Roosevelt as the cannier statesman, the author seems to view Churchill as the
more appealing human being.
Meacham theorizes that when Roosevelt died in April 1945, Churchill decided
against attending the funeral, all in the hope that the new president, Harry S.
Truman, would come to Britain and to Churchill. That way, Meacham asserts,
Churchill would get a bit of his pride back.
But the busy Truman stayed home - and when Churchill died in January 1965, so
did Lyndon B. Johnson stay home. It was a sad and petty ending to an otherwise
dramatic, warm and fascinating relationship between two giants of the 20th
century. "Franklin and Winston" recounts the drama, warmth and fascination. It
falls short of grand history. But it's splendid reading.
