UPDATE: The LBJ Book Club starts December 1.
Fans of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Robert A. Caro’s magisterial biography of LBJ, will be happy to learn that the fourth installment, The Passage of Power (1958–1964), will be published on May 1, 2012. The fifth, and most likely final, volume will take another two to three years.
Caro has conducted countless interviews, but now he seeks survivors. So many have passed away. Just since “Master of the Senate,” such family members and top officials as Valenti, Sen. Edward Kennedy, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and Theodore Sorensen have died.In other Caro news, The Path to Power and Means of Ascent will be available as e-books tomorrow and Audible now has an unabridged audiobook of The Power Broker.“Every time I walk home at night, that hits me in the face. My apartment is on Central Park West and my office is in Columbus Circle, so on my way home I pass Ted Sorensen’s house,” Caro says. “I used to be able to pick up the phone and call (LBJ aide) Horace Busby and ask him, ‘Where was Johnson sitting? On the sofa or the rocking chair?’ So often I reach for the phone these days and there’s nobody to call.”