Arthur Schlesinger, 1917-2007

Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who lived history and wrote it at the center of American political life for over six decades, died yesterday of a heart attack in Manhattan. (He started as a Roosevelt New Dealer and lived long enough to blog.) One of the big nonfiction books we've already been hearing about for the fall is his two-volume collected Journals: with his years of access to the powerful (and his reputation as a prodigious note-taker and a great gossip), they were sure to be a fascinating and detailed look into the later American century, and now they will stand as a personal testament to his very public life.

With his bow tie and quick smile, and with the frequent criticism that he was a mere Kennedy courtier (he worked as a special assistant in the JFK White House and wrote its first major history, A Thousand Days), it's easy to forget how many substantial and influential books he wrote (and how many familiar phrases their titles contributed to our political lexicon). (Nevertheless, the AP obituary quotes him about his one regret in life: "I feel a great frustration. I should have written more books.") Some highlights:

At age 21, his first book, Orestes A. Brownson: A Pilgrim's Progress (1939), was called "masterful" in the Times by Henry Steele Commager.
His next book, The Age of Jackson, published when he was 27, merely won the Pulitzer Prize and redefined the era for a new generation of historians.
In the late '50s, his bestselling three-volume history, The Age of Roosevelt (The Crisis of the Old Order, The Coming of the New Deal, The Politics of Upheaval) did the same for the New Deal era.
In between, he found time to help found the liberal anti-Communist group, Americans for Democratic Action, and write his still-influential (e.g. here) manifesto, The Vital Center.
In 1961, Kennedy brought him on as a liaison to his party's liberal wing, and after the assassination he turned his inside observations of the administration into A Thousand Days, which won not only the Pulitzer but also the National Book Award.
In 1973, he argued for Nixon's impeachment and wrote The Imperial Presidency, a critique of growing presidential power that has become relevant once again.
Robert Kennedy and His Times (1978), about his friend and ally, won his second National Book Award.
In 1991, he angered many of his liberal allies with The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society.

What's most remarkable to me (aside from his dumbfounding productivity) is that every single one of the books above (except, understandably, the first) is still in print. Take it from me: that is an amazing record of longevity for nonfiction books.

The New York Times has a lengthy obituary and a long and very helpful list of links to their reviews of his books and articles about him. On the Post site, Ben Bradlee took online questions today about his old friend. The New York Review of Books links to his articles there, including a 2004 letter to the editor called "Disgrace at Guantanamo," in which he writes, "Recovering from our periodic attacks of panic, we have always hated ourselves in the morning." And here is an LA Times editorial he wrote, on the eve of the Iraq invasion, asking, "How have we gotten into this tragic fix without searching debate?" --Tom, Amazon Bookstore