A Very Human President.

VALENTI, Jack. [William Safire].

$400.00

Item Number: 135521

New York: W.W. Norton & Compan Inc, 1975.

First edition of Valenti’s intimate biography of Lyndon Johnson. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated with photographs. Association copy, lengthily inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Bill Safire – a wise and eloquent ‘old pro’ – and me dear and valued friend Jack Valenti.” The recipient, William Safire was an important American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He joined Nixon’s campaign for the 1960 Presidential race, and supported him again in 1968. After Nixon’s 1968 victory, Safire served as a speechwriter for him and Spiro Agnew. He authored several political columns in addition to his weekly column “On Language” in The New York Times Magazine from 1979 until the month of his death and authored two books on grammar and linguistics: The New Language of Politics (1968) and what Zimmer called Safire’s “magnum opus,” Safire’s Political Dictionary. Safire later served as a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board from 1995 to 2004 and in 2006 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. With the original typed transmittal letter signed by Valenti laid in. Fine in a near fine price-clipped dust jacket.

"[Jack Valenti] brings some new and fascinating illuminations on the President and how and why he made some of the vital decisions of the 1960s. Some of the inside glimpses come closer to the truth, I suspect, than anything yet written" (Hugh Sidey, Time Magazine).