All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings [Paperback]

George H.W. Bush (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2000

Though reticent in public, George Bush has openly shared his private thoughts in correspondence throughout his life. Fortunately, since the former president does not plan to write his autobiography, this collection of letters, diary entries, and memos, with his accompanying commentary, will fill that void. As he writes in his preface, "So what we have here are letters from the past and present. Letters that are light and hopefully amusing. Letters written when my heart was heavy or full of joy. Serious letters. Nutty letters. Caring and rejoicing letters...It's all about heartbeat."

Organized chronologically, the volume begins with eighteen-year-old George's letters to his parents during World War II, when, at the time he was commissioned, he was the youngest pilot in the Navy. Readers will gain insights into Bush's career highlights -- the oil business, his two terms in Congress, his ambassadorship to the U.N., his service as an envoy to China, his tenure with the Central Intelligence Agency, and of course, the vice presidency, the presidency, and the postpresidency. They will also observe a devoted husband, father, and American. Ranging from a love letter to Barbara and a letter to his mother about missing his daughter, Robin, after her death from leukemia to a letter to his children two weeks before Nixon's resignation to one written to them just before the beginning of Desert Storm, the writings are remarkable for their candor, humor, and poignancy.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In lieu of a memoir, All the Best, George Bush collects correspondence and diary entries from the former U.S. president to show, as he says, "what my own heartbeat is, what my values are, what has motivated me in life." The letters begin in 1942--when, fresh out of high school, Bush volunteered for U.S. Navy flight school--and continue to the brink of the 21st century, as the retired chief executive worries about the Melissa virus infecting his office's server and keeping his visiting grandchildren in line. ("I realize," he muses, "Keep the freezer door closed from now on and I mean it lacks the rhetorical depth of This will not stand or Read my lips.") All the Best hits all the highlights of Bush's career, from the Texas oil business to his role as ambassador to China, then CIA director, vice president under Ronald Reagan, and finally president himself. Along the way, he reveals a personality that is at turns compassionate, respectful, silly, doting, and resolute--a man for whom being a father and a grandfather matters as much as, and maybe even more than, being leader of the free world. Fans and detractors alike will find in All the Best an intimate human portrait that offers as sure a self-definition of Bush's personal life as A World Transformed did his presidential career. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

To the present governors of Texas and Florida, his sons George and Jeb, who worried that they might upstage their famous dad, former President Bush wrote: "Do not worry when you see the stories that compare you favorably to a Dad for whom English was a second language." President Bush was indeed famously inarticulate in public. But in this collection of diary entries, memos and letters written between 1942, when he started navy flight school, to March 1999, when he wrote a friend to express his consternation that his e-mail server was down, Bush proves himself to have been a gracious and staggeringly prolific correspondent. There are long letters, such as the September 1944 missive to his parents relating how he was shot down over the Pacific. And there are truly funny diary entries from his presidency about the Scowcroft Award, a running gag in the Bush cabinet named after National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, who apparently had an uncanny knack for napping in meetings: "A fantastic challenge by Ed Derwinski. very firm eye closure and a remarkable recovery gambit." Naturally, there are long letters to world leaders such as Deng Xiaoping, King Hussein, Mikhail Gorbachev and others about matters of historical import. Diary entries cover the Tiananmen Square massacre, the failed coup against Gorbachev, the Gulf War and other crises (though there's hardly anything about the Iran-contra scandal). Rarely does Bush display any partisan bitterness, and even then it's not very pungent (though he's consistently irked by the press). Bush must have been tempted to write a memoir intended to beat historians to the interpretive punch. This modest alternative is refreshing and, in many ways, will shed more light on the man's personal character and public persona than any memoir or biography could. It offers an intriguing picture of a man who takes fierce pride in his modesty.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (October 3, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743200411
• ISBN-13: 978-0743200417
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #342,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #42 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( B ) > Bush, George

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Real George Bush, November 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: All The Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings (Hardcover)

As a collector of presidential biographies and memoirs, without a doubt All the Best by George Bush is the finest, most genuine, most personal look into the life of a President that I have ever encountered. The Bush letters, diary entries, official memoranda, and other sources cited offer the reader a "window on the soul" of our 41st President, and reveal a strength, an unrelenting decency, and an advanced sense of humor that many never knew existed (because the national media couldn't understand it). All the Best is a great book from one of the 20th Century's great statesmen.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lighthearted and insightful book...rare from a politician, November 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: All The Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings (Hardcover)

In an era where politicians are looked upon with a great deal of contempt and are portrayed (sometimes rightfully so) as cold and heartless, along comes a book to buck the trend. President Bush opens himself up to the reader to get a glimpse of his thoughts and the events going on around him. It is very revealing in parts, and generally shows his maturation and perhaps some change in perspective as the years progress. Pres. Bush does not hide the fact that he is an emotional man, and that is expressed very well in this book. One can't help but be touched by the humor, sadness, insightful opinion, and lightheartedness this collection of letters encompasses. Fair warning to those expecting a book that is "wonkish" in policy and serious reading: this is not that kind of book. Nor does it pretend to be, and that's what makes it enjoyable. If you were expecting more serious material from President Bush, I suggest you try "A World Transformed", which he co-authored with Gen. Brent Scowcroft. All in all, "All The Best..." is a nice read, and should appeal to a wider audience than most memoir/autobiographical pieces from our political figures.

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars tasteful and informative autobiography, October 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: All The Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings (Hardcover)

This is an intriguing and enticing look at former President George Bush through five plus decades of letters and diaries. The writings demonstrate that Mr. Bush's personal life mirror his public demeanor as a quiet, uncomplicated individual who strongly believes in family values. The entries include impressions of world leaders of the past two decades, adding to the interest.

Anyone seeking dirty laundry and partisan politics needs to skip this memoir. Instead, Mr. Bush treats everyone except the nagging press as a friend. The book serves as a refreshing look inside the guts of the former President as well as how he perceived some of his colleagues and events on the world stage. Fans of autobiographies, the American presidency, and American history will gain much pleasure from this memoir that is much more interesting than the sanitized version of greatness that many of the modern day autobiographies present. Mr. Bush shows his pride of simply being Mr. Bush.

Harriet Klausner