What is it about election years? The recent publication of the fourth volume in Robert Caro’s massive biography of President Lyndon Baines Johnson may not answer this question, but it does make us rethink the legacy of LBJ, and compel us to acknowledge the power, the responsibility and the basic human dimension of America’s highest elected office.
Lyndon Johnson was the fourth man to assume the office after the assassination of the president, joining company with those following the assassination of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. In The Vantage Point Johnson memorably recalls those terrible minutes in the Dallas motorcade when Secret Service Agent Youngblood “pushed me to the floor and sat on my right shoulder to keep me down and protect me… I was still not clear about what was happening.”
Bauman Rare Books is pleased to offer a fine first edition of Johnson’s 1971 autobiography, The Vantage Point, signed by him, that offers an exceptional touchstone to the man and the president. The value of a modern first edition, such as this, is substantially enhanced by the presence of the original dust jacket. The original dust jacket issued with the first edition of The Vantage Point has a clear laminate that tends to bubble, so we look for copies where that “bubbling” is fairly minor.
Speculation was rampant in contemporary papers, with many reviewers attributing the book to a man because of the quality and complexity of the prose. However, William Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte’s literary hero and later an important member of her circle, wrote, “It is a fine book… I have been exceedingly moved & pleased by Jane Eyre. It is a woman’s writing, but whose?” Bronte’s identity was revealed only after the work had gone through several editions. By that time, it was already clear that she had written a classic of English literature. 
Critics blasted Twain’s dark, brilliant Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the moment of publication, vilifying the book for its “coarseness” and “blood-curdling humor.” Nonetheless, it emerged as arguably the defining novel of American literature, prompting Hemingway to declare: “All modern writing comes from one book by Mark Twain. It’s the best book we’ve had. There was nothing before. There has been nothing since.” Published in 1885, Huck was a labor of love and frustration that had taken Twain eight years, and he was devastated that its introduction failed to elicit the same enthusiasm as his beloved Tom Sawyer. 