Reply #56: He wrote his own non-fiction. The mystery books came very late in his life.. [View All]

[Captain Hilts]

and a few were published after he'd died.

Margaret Truman not only didn't write the mysteries, embarassingly, she didn't even read them and was clearly clueless about them in interviews and steered away from that. I don't think she wrote that last book about first ladies. It's lousy.

Elliot did write the non-fiction. After "Mother R," the other four kids had a press conference and denounced him and the book.

The story you've linked to I certainly believe. Having lived in the White House for so long, Eleanor would have seen such an act as complicating an already complicated issue and medddling in Truman's affairs while he was getting his feet on the ground in the presidency. She also would have understood the hazards of prominent US citizens engaging in what would be seen as US foreign policy outside of government.

He wasn't actually a combat pilot. He flew reconnaissance flights. A ton of them and distinguished himself by all standards.

The Roosevelt kids all got into trouble. Elliot refused to go to college. James barely got through Harvard. FDRjr actually got good grades at Harvard and graduated from UVA law school and passed the bar, but FDR continued to favor James, who got into some very dodgy financial deals that enraged William O. Douglas as head of the SEC. FDRjr also distinguished himself in the war but was an impatient jerk who had a tendency to drink too much. He did, however, politically, take his mother's advice on things and worked with her on Americans for Democratic Action, for example. James Roosevelt totally pissed off Harry Truman by trying to get Eisenhower to run as a Dem in '48. Truman returned the favor by not campaigning for James when he ran for Gov. of California in 1952. When Truman was asked why, in his memoirs, he was so easy on James Roosevelt, whom he could not stand, he said, "because that boy's mother is one of the greatest people who ever lived." "We all failed her," said James.

The Churchills got one decent kid out of four: Mary Soames, who has penned books about her parents.

Theodore Roosevelts kids were wild, unruly and undisciplined. When TR won the Nobel Peace prize in 1908?? he gave a good chunk of the change to Eleanor, "because she'll know what to do with it." Much to the dismay of his unruly spawn. TR said Eleanor reminded him more of himself than any of his own children, which really ticked them off.

Ain't families strange? Be glad you don't have a famous relative!