A Man Among Old Friends

THE PRESIDENCY/HUGH SIDEY

A while back New York Congressman Jonathan Bingham slipped Jimmy Carter a 414-page book, saying that he wanted Carter to have it even though he knew he was too busy to read it right away. The book, Courage to Change: An Introduction to the Life and Thought of Reinhold Niebuhr, was by Bingham's wife June. Carter fixed his determined gaze on Bingham and replied, "I shall read it within the month."

Within the month Carter ran into the Binghams in Washington and reported: "I have only three chapters to go and I have been underlining." Now he is finished.

It is one of the comments on this political year that finding a candidate who carves out time for books is such a unique experience. Carter had to slow his pace of three books a week to win the Democratic nomination. But during his interlude in Plains, while waiting for his opponent to be chosen, he resumed his regular pace. "I keep three or four books going at a time," he says. He went through a biography of Teddy Roosevelt, a President he admires. He read Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream by Doris Kearns and eagerly welcomed the author a few weeks later when she came to interview him. Recently Carter polished off General Maxwell Taylor's new book on national defense, Precarious Security. He is savoring Justice and Mercy, a collection of Niebuhr's sermons, addresses and prayers that was sent to him by the theologian's widow.

Besides books, Carter sometimes samples as many as ten newspapers a day, six from his Southern region and three or four from beyond. He has a clipping service that goes through six to eight other papers around the country and dips into scores of magazines every month.

All men in pursuit of power follow the news. But book reading is something special. Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman were three who indulged. John Kennedy could speed-read 1,200 words a minute, so he was able to continue consuming books even in the White House. Carter also took a speed-reading course but claims no records; yet he fully intends to keep up with important books should he win the November election, though campaigning will slow his consumption until then.

The most important book in his life is, of course, the Bible. Another that had profound impact was James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. The book Reinhold Niebuhr on Politics was important in developing his attitude toward public life.

As a boy he was urged to read Tolstoy's War and Peace. He was disappointed when he found it was not about cowboys and Indians, but he stuck with it nonetheless. He has read the book two or three times and counts it as one of his favorites. He was deeply moved by Sandburg's volumes on Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography.

A few days ago, Carter plucked out Bertrand Russell's A History of Western Philosophy. He handled it gently, like an old friend, opening the worn pages carefully and glancing at familiar lines. "I've read it three or four times," he said.

Carter's favorite poet is Dylan Thomas, and he has read most of his works. He liked Arthur Schlesinger's A Thousand Days, an account of Kennedy's presidency. He thought Plain Speaking, the profile of Harry Truman by Merle Miller, was especially instructive. His favorite "trade book" is The Presidential Character, an analysis by Duke University's James David Barber of the traits that make for strong and weak chief executives.

Carter got his taste for reading from his mother. He vividly recalls how it was when electricity first came to their home, some 39 years ago. It not only dispelled much drudgery but, as Carter remembers, brought abundant, glorious light by which he and his mother could read anyplace, any time.

As a boy Carter was given a set of Guy de Maupassant's books. He read them all. He pursued Thomas Hardy's works. As he grew he took educational side excursions like Hitler's Mein Kampfand Darwin's The Origin of Species. Carter and his wife studied a bit of art history, and of course he read much of the literature of the South, William Faulkner being a principal source. Like John Kennedy, Carter had fun along the way too. He has read with some relish, he confesses, most of the James Bond spy thrillers.

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