by A. J. Baime
“There were quite a few saloons”: Oral history interview, Mary Jane Truman, p. 35, Truman Library.
“Work Mules for Sale!”: Mary Jane Truman Papers, box 1, Truman Library.
“When I was about six”: Longhand note, May 14, 1934, Pickwick Papers, PSF:LNF, Truman Papers.
“the most popular man”: Henry P. Chiles quoted in “Truman Places: 608 North Delaware,” https://www.trumanlibrary.org/places/in12.htm.
“was never popular”: Alonzo L. Hamby, Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 3.
“At one time,” according to: Oral history interview, Mary Ethel Noland, p. 56, Truman Library.
“He ended up being”: M. J. Truman oral history, p. 3.
“In reading the lives of great”: Longhand note, May 14, 1934, Pickwick Papers, PSF:LNF, Truman Papers.
“History showed me that”: Truman, Memoirs, p. 120.
“If I succeeded in”: Longhand note, May 14, 1934.
On August 23, 1898: M. J. Truman Papers, box 1.
“He didn’t get to play”: Oral history interview, Mrs. W.L.C. Palmer, p. 17, Truman Library.
“a very, very genteel”: Oral history interview, Pansy Perkins and Pauline Sims, p. 5, Truman Library.
“Well, don’t I get one”: Robert H. Ferrell, Harry S. Truman: A Life (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1994), p. 188.
Chapter 6
“My father’s finances became”: Longhand note, May 14, 1934, Pickwick Papers, PSF:LNF, Truman Papers.
“It took all I received”: Ibid.
“I became very familiar”: Memoirs by Harry S. Truman: 1945; Year of Decisions (New York: Konecky & Konecky, 1955), p. 123.
“J. A. Truman & Son”: Margaret Truman, Bess W. Truman (New York: Macmillan, 1986), p. 34.
Truman family’s 1910 tax return: Mary Jane Truman Papers, box 2, Truman Library.
“I have memorized a whole”: Harry S. Truman to Bess W. Wallace, August 18, 1914, FBPAP:FCF, box 3, Truman Papers.
“We are living on bread”: Truman to Wallace, June 16, 1911, FBPAP:FCF, box 1.
“Aunt Ella”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, p. 30.
“It seems to me”: Truman to Wallace, July 1, 1912, FBPAP:FCF, box 2.
“It is a family failing”: Truman to Wallace, June 22, 1911, FBPAP:FCF, box 1.
“He thought I was about”: Longhand note, Pickwick Papers, May 14, 1934, PSF: LNF.
“Politics is all he ever”: Truman to Wallace, August 6, 1912, FBPAP:FCF, box 2.
“I have been tossed upon”: Jon Meacham, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House (New York: Random House, 2009), p. xvii.
“If Andrew Jackson can be President”: Ibid., p. 20.
“Nobody talks anything but”: Truman to Wallace, November 5, 1912, FBPAP: FCF, box 2.
“Politics sure is the ruination”: Truman to Wallace, August 19, 1913, FBPAP:FCF, box 2.
“Mrs. Wallace wasn’t a bit”: David McCullough, Truman (New York: Touchstone, 1993), pp. 91–92.
“I had been sitting”: Jonathan Daniels, The Man of Independence (Port Washington, NY: Kennikat, 1971), p. 74.
“I am convinced”: Truman to Wallace, February 4, 1916, FBPAP:FCF, box 3.
“My money is in now”: Truman to Wallace, March 5, 1916, FBPAP:FCF, box 3.
“My ship’s going to come in”: Truman to Wallace, October 29, 1913, FBPAP:FCF, box 3.
“How would you like”: Longhand note, May 14, 1934, Pickwick Papers, PSF:LNF.
“Queen of the Waves”: “Lusitania’s Great Size and Speed,” Washington Post, May 8, 1915.
“The country was horrified”: A. Scott Berg, Wilson (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2013), p. 362.
“I am simply on needle points”: Truman to Wallace, November 16, 1916, FBPAP:FCF, box 4.
“My luck should surely”: Truman to Wallace, January 23, 1917, FBPAP:FCF, box 4.
“[Germany] is firing upon our”: “Germany’s Acts of War,” New York Times, March 19, 1917.
“I advise that the Congress”: Woodrow Wilson, The War Message of President Woodrow Wilson Delivered to the Congress (San Francisco: A. M. Robertson, 1917), p. 8.
“I was stirred in heart”: Longhand note, May 1931, PSF:LNF.
“The difference between a bold”: George E. Allen, Presidents Who Have Known Me (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960), p. 90.
“farmer, oil”: FBPAP: Military File, box 33, Truman Papers.
“I don’t think it would be”: Truman to Wallace, July 14, 1917, FBPAP:FCF, box 4.
Chapter 7
“Dust in my teeth”: Truman to Wallace, October 19, 1917, FBPAP:FCF, box 4.
“It was the coldest”: Oral history interview, Floyd T. Ricketts, pp. 4–5, Truman Library.
“a fine Jewish boy”: Longhand note, May 14, 1934, Pickwick Papers, PSF:LNF, Truman Papers.
“It is eleven o’clock”: Harry S. Truman to Bess W. Wallace, March 29, 1918, FBPAP:FCF, box 5, Truman Papers.
“Dear Harry, May this photograph”: Margaret Truman, Bess W. Truman (New York: Macmillan, 1986), p. 283.
“There we were watching”: David McCullough, Truman (New York: Touchstone, 1993), p. 111.
“trying to drink”: Truman to Wallace, April 14, 1918, FBPAP:FCF, box 5.
“The country is very pretty”: Truman to Wallace, April 23, 1918, FBPAP:FCF, box 5.
“I think of Battery D”: Oral history interview, Harry E. Murphy, p. 30, Truman Library.
“Most of the young fellows”: Ricketts oral history, pp. 3–4.
“He took command of the battery”: Oral history interview, Edward D. McKim, p. 4, Truman Library.
“I didn’t come over here”: Jonathan Daniels, The Man of Independence (Port Washington, NY: Kennikat, 1971), p. 95.
“He let us know he was”: McKim oral history, p. 16.
“I am a Battery commander”: Truman to Wallace, July 14, 1918, FBPAP:FCF, box 5.
“I have my doubts”: Truman to Wallace, July 31, 1918, FBPAP:FCF, box 5.
“The roads [that led]”: Unpublished memoirs of Battery D soldier Verne Chaney, Verne E. Chaney Papers, Truman Library.
“we pulled over the crest”: Ibid.
“It was our first taste of war”: Ricketts oral history, p. 10.
“Then all hell broke loose”: Chaney memoirs.
“My battery became panic-stricken”: Memoirs by Harry S. Truman: 1945; Year of Decisions (New York: Konecky & Konecky, 1955), p. 129.
“The first sergeant got”: Oral history interview, Walter B. Menefee, p. 8, Truman Library.
“gasping like a catfish”: McCullough, Truman, p. 122.
“I would make an effort”: Chaney memoirs.
“The fireworks started”: Oral history interview, McKinley Wooden, p. 42, Truman Library.
“I saw bodies without heads”: Chaney memoirs.
“plumb crazy”: Truman to Wallace, September 15, 1918, FBPAP:FCF, box 5.
“The rest of us would look like”: Oral history interview, Harry H. Vaughan, p. 6, Truman Library.
“The great drive has”: Truman to Wallace, October 6, 1918, FBPAP:FCF, box 5.
“The silence that followed”: Truman, Memoirs, p. 131.
“Vive President Wilson!”: Ibid.
“You may invite the entire”: Wallace to Truman, March 16, 1919, FBPAP:FCF, box 6.
“You’ve just never seen”: McCullough, Truman, p. 144.
“Well, now, Mrs. Truman”: Oral history interview, Ted Marks, p. 28, Truman Library.
“The Wallaces . . . rather ignored”: Oral history interview, Edgar C. Faris Jr., p. 112, Truman Library.
“I finally decided to sell”: Longhand note, May 14, 1934, Pickwick Papers, PSF:LNF, Truman Papers.
Chapter 8
SHIRTS, COLLARS, HOSIERY: From the myriad of photographs of the store online.
the lease called for $350: Court papers, lawsuit against Truman and Jacobson, FBPAP: General File, box 28, Truman Papers.
“Twelfth Street was in”: “Collars and Cuffs,” Talk of the Town, New Yorker, September 1, 1945.
“I am still paying”: Longhand note, May 14, 1934, Pickwick Papers, PSF:LNF, Truman Papers.
“How’d you like to be”: Jonathan Daniels, The Man of Independence (Port Washington, NY: Kennikat, 1971), p. 109.
“Funny thing”: “Collars and Cuffs.”
“I never will forget”: Oral history interview, Edgar G. Hinde, p. 45, Truman Library.
“He kind of stammered”: Oral history interview, Henry P. Chiles, p. 36, Truman Library.
“The purse strings”: Lyle W. Dorsett, The Pendergast Machine (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1968), p. 55.
“It’s a very simple thing”: Marquis Childs, “Campaign,” The Thirties: A Time to Remember, ed. Don Congdon (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1962), p. 434.
“Certainly Mike and Tom”: Robert H. Ferrell, ed., Dear Bess: The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, 1910–1959 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1983), p. 304.
“I won the dirtiest”: Truman interview notes, Jonathan Daniels Papers, box 1, Truman Library.
“Morning, Judge”: Oral history interview, A. Layle Childers, Harry S. Truman National Historic Site, National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/hstr/learn/historyculture/upload/childers_interview.pdf.
“Old Tom Pendergast wanted”: Oral history interview, Harry H. Vaughan, p. 12, Truman Library.
“as if I were the president”: Jon Taylor, Harry Truman’s Independence: The Center of the World (Charleston, SC: History Press, 2013), n.p.
“to live up to my good mother’s”: Longhand note, Pickwick Papers, PSF:LNF.
“Everybody thought Mr. Truman”: Oral history interview, Mize Peters, pp. 28–29, Truman Library.
“This sweet associate of mine”: Longhand note, n.d., Pickwick Papers, PSF:LNF, Truman Papers.
“We never had to do”: Oral history interview, Nathan Thomas Veatch, pp. 79–80, Truman Library.
“If I were to choose the five”: Oral history interview, Dixie Pollard, p. 4, Truman Library.
“Mr. Truman had a natural”: Oral history interview, Oscar L. Chapman, pp. 837–38, Truman Library.
“extraordinarily efficient”: Truman interview notes, Daniels Papers.
(there were 70,950): Dixon Wecter, “From Riches to Rags,” The Thirties: A Time to Remember, ed. Don Congdon (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1962), p. 30.
“I am firm in my belief”: Ibid.
“The fundamental business”: Herbert Hoover, Statement on the National Business and Economic Situation, American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=21979.
“one of the most uncontrollable”: “Market Checks Fresh Drop to Deeper Depths,” Christian Science Monitor, October 29, 1929.
“pretty hard on head”: Harry S. Truman to Bess W. Truman, May 11, 1933, FBPAP:FCF, box 8, Truman Papers.
“The finances of the county”: H. S. Truman to B. W. Truman, February 12, 1931, FBPAP:FCF, box 7.
“outbreaks of gunplay”: “Two Killed in Missouri Vote Rioting,” Washington Post, March 28, 1934.
“The manager gave me”: H. S. Truman to B. W. Truman, April 28, 1933, FBPAP:FCF, box 7.
“Since childhood at my”: Longhand note, n.d., Pickwick Papers, PSF:LNF, Truman Papers.
“We’ve spent $7,000,000”: Ibid.
“I wonder if I did”: Ibid.
“Maybe I can put”: Ibid.
“The only thing we have to fear”: Footage of Franklin Roosevelt’s first inaugural speech, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nSgMWW-808.
“No power on earth”: Milton Meltzer, Never to Forget: The Jews of the Holocaust (1976, reprint New York: HarperCollins, 1991), p. 18.
“the Mussolini of Missouri”: “Pendergast Machine Dominates Missouri,” Washington Post, August 14, 1934; and “The Big Fellow,” Washington Post, September 18, 1936.
“He was an able clear thinker”: “Jackson Democratic Club,” Truman Library, https://www.trumanlibrary.org/places/kc8a.htm.
“If you don’t have a candidate”: Oral history interview, James P. Aylward, pp. 62–64, Truman Library.
Chapter 9
“Judge,” Aylward said: Oral history interview, James P. Aylward, pp. 65–67, Truman Library.
“one of the most fascinating”: Lyle W. Dorsett, The Pendergast Machine (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1968), p. 112.
“Tomorrow I am to make”: Longhand note, May 14, 1934, Pickwick Papers, PSF:LNF, Truman Papers.
“Two words are all any”: Interview notes, Jonathan Daniels Papers, box 1, Truman Library.
“For this bellhop”: David McCullough, Truman (New York: Touchstone, 1993), p. 208.
“Truman is little known”: “Jim Reed May Run as an Independent,” New York Times, May 20, 1934.
“I’ll tell you we had”: Aylward oral history, pp. 75–76.
“the swarthy, right-hand man”: “Political Gang Chieftain Slain,” Washington Post, July 11, 1934.
“If anything happens”: McCullough, Truman, p. 207.
“Boss Pendergast’s Errand Boy”: Marquis Childs, “Unpromising Freshman of 1934,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 11, 1942.
“County Judge Truman is”: Ibid.
“He pulled Jackson County”: Oral history interview, Mrs. W.L.C. Palmer, p. 40, Truman Library.
“What’s a senator?”: Margaret Truman, “I Don’t Want to Go to Washington,” Detroit Free Press, November 30, 1956.
“wailing dramatically”: Margaret Truman, Harry S. Truman (New York: William Morrow, 1973), p. 89.
“undoubtedly the poorest”: Jonathan Daniels, The Man of Independence (Port Washington, NY: Kennikat, 1971), p. 176.
“Men,” Garner said: Aylward oral history, p. 118.
“the teeming galleries were hushed”: “Senate Begins New Session in Solemn Mood,” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 4, 1935.
“the Senator from Pendergast”: Robert H. Ferrell, Harry S. Truman: A Life (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1994), p. 188.
“If you had seen Harry”: Childs, “Unpromising Freshman.”
“not considered brilliant”: “New Faces in the Senate,” Washington Post, November 12, 1934.
“Don’t start out with”: Memoirs by Harry S. Truman: 1945; Year of Decisions (New York: Konecky & Konecky, 1955), p. 144.
“Sen. Thomas Truman”: FDR daily calendar, February 14, 1935, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/daybyday/daylog/february-14th-1935/.
“No one who hasn’t had”: Donald M. Nelson, Arsenal of Democracy (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1946), p. 14.
“I was practically tongue-tied”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, p. 91.
“That man was there earlier”: Oral history interview, Edgar C. Faris Jr., p. 71, Truman Library.
“the average man for a happier”: Truman speech, n.d., FBPAP, box 28, Truman Papers.
“Kind of hard . . . to attend”: Harry S. Truman to Bess W. Truman, June 22, 1935, FBPAP:FCF, box 8, Truman Papers.
“She would drop paper clips”: Oral history interview, Reathel Odum, p. 21, Truman Library.
“There’s a driving force”: H. S. Truman to B. W. Truman, June 22, 1935.
“arranging a compromise”: “Pendergast, Jailed Boss, Poor Guesser on Horses,” Daily Boston Globe, May 28, 1939.
“Pendergast has been a good”: “Truman Didn’t Seek Presidency—It Came,” Washington Post, April 16, 1945.
“The terrible things done”: H. S. Truman to B. W. Truman, October 1, 1935, FBPAP:FCF, box 8.
“Never before or since”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, p. 117.
“I feel as if my four years”: Ibid.
“There is nothing more pitiful”: Oral history interview, George Tames, p. 37, Truman Library.
“Everybody keeps telling me”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, p. 118.
Chapter 10
“scared stiff”: Norman Beasley, Knudsen: A Biography (New York: M
cGraw-Hill, 1947), p. 164.
“Airplanes! Airplanes!”: Ibid.
“aerial attacks, stupendous”: “The Meaning of ‘Blitzkrieg,’” New York Times, April 5, 1940.
“little chance of renomination”: “Pendergast Term Called ‘Too Light,’” New York Times, May 24, 1939.
“I’ll beat the hell”: “Stark to Run for Truman’s Seat in Senate,” Washington Post, June 24, 1939.
“Harry, I don’t think”: Jonathan Daniels, The Man of Independence (Port Washington, NY: Kennikat, 1971), p. 198.
“He had very little backing”: Oral history interview, John W. Snyder, pp. 64–65, Truman Library.
“I’m going to file”: Daniels, Man of Independence, pp. 198–99.
“The Senator will not”: Snyder oral history, pp. 60–62.
“We didn’t give him”: Oral history interview, A. J. Granoff, p. 86, Truman Library.
“I had a bank balance”: Margaret Truman, Harry S. Truman (New York: William Morrow, 1973), p. 124.
“An effort should be made”: Campaign update no. 1, Victor R. Messall Papers, box 10, Truman Library.
“At 16, I was able to feel”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, pp. 127–28.
“I believe in the brotherhood”: Truman speech, Messall Papers, box 10.
“I think that was the all-time”: Oral history interview, Harry H. Vaughan, p. 32, Truman Library.
“a dead cock in the pit”: Alonzo L. Hamby, Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 235.
“Without fraudulent votes”: Excerpt of article quoted in letter to editor, Kansas City Star, June 25, 1940, Messall Papers, box 11, Truman Library.
“Truman is through”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, p. 123.
“The President asks me”: Stephen Early to R. H. Wadlow, chairman of Truman Labor Reception Committee, July 30, 1940, PPF, file 6337, Franklin D. Roosevelt Papers, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, NY.
“owes his place to the notorious”: “Embarrassing the President?,” Christian Science Monitor, August 2, 1940.
“I’m going to bed”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, p. 133.
“This is Dave Berenstein”: Ibid.