DEAD PRESIDENTS BRADY CARLSON W. W. NORTON & COMPANY Independent Publishers Since 1923 NEW YORK • LONDON AN AMERICAN ADVENTURE INTO THE STRANGE DEATHS AND SURPRISING AFTERLIVES OF OUR NATION’S LEADERS For Owen, who has malice toward none and charity for all That’s all a man can hope for during his lifetime—to set an example—and when he is dead, to be an inspiration for history. WILLIAM McKINLEY Being president is like running a cemetery: you’ve got a lot of people under you and nobody’s listening. BILL CLINTON CONTENTS Presidents of the United States Introduction 1. Monument Man On George Washington’s Transformation from Mortal Man to Immortal Icon 2. Well-Timed Exits On the Postmortem Fortunes (and Misfortunes) of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, William Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, and Andrew Johnson 3. The First Patient On James Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Zachary Taylor, and the Doctors Who Keep Presidents Alive (and Occasionally Make Them Worse) 4. Farewell, Mr. President On William Henry Harrison, Woodrow Wilson, Gerald Ford, and Richard Nixon, and How the Presidential Funeral Was Born 5. Death Trips On the Posthumous Travels of James Polk, James Monroe, John Tyler, and Abraham Lincoln 6. His Good Name On William McKinley, Ronald Reagan, and Calvin Coolidge, and the Large (and Small) Ways Presidents Are Remembered 7. Robots and Sphinxes On Lyndon Johnson, Rutherford B. Hayes, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, and Chester Arthur, and America’s Presidential Libraries 8. Unintended Legacies On William Taft, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, and How Presidents’ Reputations Change over Time 9. Eternal Flame On John F. Kennedy, the City of Dallas, and What Ties Them Together Every November 22 10. The Rest of the Set On the Many Types of Presidential Obscurity and Mediocrity, with Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, Martin Van Buren, James Buchanan, and Warren Harding 11. Family Reunion On the Adamses, the Harrisons, and Presidential Descendants Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes Illustration Credits Index PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES George Washington (1732–1799) 1789–1797 John Adams (1735–1826) 1797–1801 Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 1801–1809 James Madison (1751–1836) 1809–1817 James Monroe (1758–1831) 1817–1825 John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) 1825–1829 Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) 1829–1837 Martin Van Buren (1782–1862) 1837–1841 William Henry Harrison (1773–1841) 1841 John Tyler (1790–1862) 1841–1845 James K. Polk (1795–1849) 1845–1849 Zachary Taylor (1784–1850) 1849–1850 Millard Fillmore (1800–1874) 1850–1853 Franklin Pierce (1804–1869) 1853–1857 James Buchanan (1791–1868) 1857–1861 Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 1861–1865 Andrew Johnson (1808–1875) 1865–1869 Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 1869–1877 Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893) 1877–1881 James A. Garfield (1831–1881) 1881 Chester Arthur (1829–1886) 1881–1885 Grover Cleveland (1837–1908) 1885–1889, 1893–1897 Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901) 1889–1893 William McKinley (1843–1901) 1897–1901 Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) 1901–1909 William Howard Taft (1857–1930) 1909–1913 Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) 1913–1921 Warren G. Harding (1865–1923) 1921–1923 Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) 1923–1929 Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) 1929–1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 1933–1945 Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) 1945–1953 Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) 1953–1961 John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 1961–1963 Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) 1963–1969 Richard Nixon (1913–1994) 1969–1974 Gerald Ford (1913–2006) 1974–1977 Jimmy Carter (1924–) 1977–1981 Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) 1981–1989 George H. W. Bush (1924–) 1989–1993 Bill Clinton (1946–) 1993–2001 George W. Bush (1946–) 2001–2009 Barack H. Obama (1961–) 2009–2017 DEAD PRESIDENTS