Robert A. Caro Quote
The convention was deadlocked now, and in a deadlocked convention, who was in a better position to get the nomination than him? Nobody! he said. And he would get the nomination, he told Rayburn, if only you would take the lead, really get in there and fight for me. Some of the other congressional leaders who overheard the conversation had never before seen Lyndon Johnson working Mr. Sam, and they were astonished at his pleading and whining. Rayburn, grumpy anyway because he hated flying, didn’t say much in reply, aside from an occasional, noncommittal grunt; he sat silent, his broad bald head lowered between his shoulders, puffing on a cigarette. When Rayburn didn’t agree to do what Johnson wanted, Johnson escalated his pleas. Johnson gave him a real sales job, says House Democratic Whip Carl Albert of Oklahoma, who sat across the aisle from the two Texans. He told Mr. Rayburn, ‘I have supported you all these years, and I need your help. I have a chance here.…’ Rayburn sat silent, a block of granite in his seat. It was an embarrassing ride for everyone on the plane, listening to Johnson’s acting like a spoiled child, one of Rayburn’s biographers was to write. But there was silent applause for Rayburn, who during the two-hour flight said hardly a word.
The convention was deadlocked now, and in a deadlocked convention, who was in a better position to get the nomination than him? Nobody! he said. And he would get the nomination, he told Rayburn, if only you would take the lead, really get in there and fight for me. Some of the other congressional leaders who overheard the conversation had never before seen Lyndon Johnson working Mr. Sam, and they were astonished at his pleading and whining. Rayburn, grumpy anyway because he hated flying, didn’t say much in reply, aside from an occasional, noncommittal grunt; he sat silent, his broad bald head lowered between his shoulders, puffing on a cigarette. When Rayburn didn’t agree to do what Johnson wanted, Johnson escalated his pleas. Johnson gave him a real sales job, says House Democratic Whip Carl Albert of Oklahoma, who sat across the aisle from the two Texans. He told Mr. Rayburn, ‘I have supported you all these years, and I need your help. I have a chance here.…’ Rayburn sat silent, a block of granite in his seat. It was an embarrassing ride for everyone on the plane, listening to Johnson’s acting like a spoiled child, one of Rayburn’s biographers was to write. But there was silent applause for Rayburn, who during the two-hour flight said hardly a word.
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About Robert A. Caro
After working for many years as a reporter, Caro wrote The Power Broker (1974), a biography of New York urban planner Robert Moses, which was chosen by the Modern Library as one of the hundred greatest nonfiction books of the twentieth century. He has since written four of a planned five volumes of The Years of Lyndon Johnson (1982, 1990, 2002, 2012), a biography of the former president. Caro has been described as "the most influential biographer of the last century".
For his biographies, he has won two Pulitzer Prizes in Biography, two National Book Awards (including one for Lifetime Achievement), the Francis Parkman Prize, three National Book Critics Circle Awards, the Mencken Award for Best Book, the Carr P. Collins Award from the Texas Institute of Letters, the D. B. Hardeman Prize, and a Gold Medal in Biography from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2010 President Barack Obama awarded Caro the National Humanities Medal.
Due to Caro's reputation for exhaustive research and detail, he is sometimes invoked by reviewers of other writers who are called "Caro-esque" for their own extensive research.