McCarthy.

COHN, Roy.

$2,000.00

Item Number: 128627

New York : The New American Library, 1968.

First edition of this work by Cohn, who came to prominence for his role as Senator Joseph McCarthy’s chief counsel during the Army–McCarthy hearings in 1954. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated. Association copy, inscribed by the author in the year of publication on the front free endpaper to close friend William Safire and his wife, “For Sadie and Bill — Much love — Roy May 25/68.” 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 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. Near fine in a near fine price-clipped dust jacket. Jacket design by Ken Braren.

"This portrait of Senator Joseph McCarthy by the young lawyer closest to him in the heyday of 'McCarthyism' is an extraordinary mixture of the expected and the unexpected. McCarthy, says Cohn, had no special interest in or knowledge of Communism until he was approached in late 1949 by three men with an FBI study, obtained from the Pentagon, reporting on the subversive activities of State Department employees. McCarthy launched his crusade and immediately became the center of a world controversy. Cohn's close-up of the explosive senator from Wisconsin is fascinating, candid, fresh.