The piece is called "The Mystery Buffs in the White House" by Craig Fehrman (NYT, May 23rd 2018). Here's the link.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/books/review/president-mystery-thriller-detective.html
The most interesting thing about Fehrman's piece is the news, not previously known to me, that Lincoln read, and liked, Poe.
The president-mystery bond began with Abraham Lincoln and Edgar Allan Poe, who were born within a month of each other in 1809. Like a lot of 19th-century readers, our 16th president was wary of popular fiction . . . But Lincoln made an exception for Poe, reading his pioneering detective stories soon after their publication; he could quote full passages from classics like “The Gold-Bug.”
. . . Consider how one of Lincoln’s contemporaries described his relationship to Poe: “The absolute and logical method of Poe’s tales” appealed to “the bent of his mind.”
Later on we're told that (Theodore Roosevelt also read Poe)
By contrast,
Calvin Coolidge liked detective stories by S. S. Van Dine.
I'm curious about Fehrman's source for his Lincoln-read-Poe story and may try to track down his book to see what evidence he cites for this.
--John R.
As you may recall, Helen Haines, the author of the guide to the novel in which C.S. Lewis found E.R. Eddison discussed, in her chapter on mysteries attributes their general popularity in the US to Woodrow Wilson's fondness for one by the now rather-forgotten J.S. Fletcher. That adds a piece of specificity to the general impression your other sources are giving.
ReplyDeleteHi David
ReplyDeleteYou're right; I had forgotten about Haines' book, which encouraged libraries to stock books their patrons wanted to read, including mysteries. Thanks for the reminder. I've ordered a copy of the FDR book, so I'll soon be able to see for myself how it stacks up.
--John R.