Customer Reviews

Lady Bird: A Biography of Mrs. Johnson

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After all the hype (at least in Texas) about "Lady Bird," and my own fascination with the Johnsons, I was really looking forward to this book. I must say it has not lived up to my expectations. Very little of Mrs. Johnson's gracious voice comes through, so a reader unfamiliar with her would not understand how eloquent she is. Many of the anecdotes seem lifted directly from Caro's and others' LBJ biographies. Finally, how did this book get onto the market with such sloppy editing? The author has Mrs. Johnson's mother pregnant at age 50 when she was actually several years younger according to the birth date and other dates the author provides; and alludes to the Johnsons' wedding and honeymoon in 1954, not 1934. There are numerous annoying typos and not a few awkward grammatical constructions. This book needed more of Mrs. Johnson, less previously plowed ground, and an attentive editor.

As a fan of Jan Jarboe Russell's past articles in Texas Monthly magazine, I was not disappointed by her biography. The author proved to be honest and forthright as expected. I appreciated Lady Bird even more because she really showed true grit in a world dominated by men. Behind the scenes, she proved to be the influential guiding force in LBJ's political life. Her business savvy was amazing to say the least. For a woman of her time, she was a truly remarkable lady in every sense of the word. Thank you Jan Jarboe Russell for telling us about the real Lady Bird.

Lady Bird Johnson, (1912-2007) First Lady from 1963-69 was truly a gracious lady. This book does a fair to middling job of portraying her life, but the final chapters that cover her life after Johnson's presidency ended are sketchy and skimpy.

Lady Bird is known for her Beautification Project and it was largely her influence that spurred Johnson to pass many bills during his administration.

A decent book, but Robert Caro's biography is much better and much more in depth.

Lady Bird is the unusually revealing biography of Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of President Lyndon Johnson by Jan Jarboe Russell (a contributing editor at "Texas Monthly" who has covered texas politics and culture for more than thirty years). Skillfully researched and smoothly written, grounded in conversations with the former First Lady and interviews with her inner circle of friends, family, and advisors, Lady Bird shows both the public and private sides of a strong, determined, and remarkable woman whose influence on her husband, and through him America, was considerable. Highly recommended.

I thought I knew Lady Bird Johnson -- sweet, flat, uninteresting, dominated by her powerful husband -- until I read this outstandingly revelatory book. Bird is every bit as strong as Hillary, and probably even LBJ himself. Author Russell makes a convincing case that Bird is a force to be reckoned with, and I'm not talking about her party-planning skills. Superior biography that brings it subject to life.

Jan Jarboe Russell has authored an extraordinarily insightful book that reaches beyond a conventional biography of a woman's life. Her book brings together as no other has a close attending to the lived complexity of the very human relationships between Lady Bird and Lyndon. Somehow Jarboe-Russell has given us the other half of the story of what it is to experience life in an auxillary position. Most biographies of spouses of historical figures in the past have focused on the male experience and male vision. In her illuminating venture into the world of a contemporary Hera, Jarboe-Russell raises intriguing questions about the sacrifices a woman often makes to live in a male-dominated culture. This author has succeeded admirably in providing the reader a glimpse of a mythology that continues to to be alive in many marriages. I was spellbound by the narrative. It is a gem of a book.

There is too much of the author and not enough Lady Bird in this book. I am fascinated by Mrs. Johnson; she must have been a real Steel Magnolia, having put up with LBJ for so long, but this book seemed to focus too much on him. I would have like to have heard more about Lady Bird's efforts to beautify America, and the other causes that interested her. The author did not serve herself well when she asked Mrs. Johnson too many personal questions which led to Lady Bird's withdrawl of participation in the book.

At the same time, I think this book is a good overview of Mrs. Johnson's life and times. I just wish that the author could have gone deeper than LBJ's manic personality and infidelities.

After reading Robert Caro's masterful biographies (Volumes 1 and 2) of LBJ, I yearned to learn more about the background of Lady Bird--specifically what contributed to her not only staying married to LBJ but to singlemindedly propelling his career forward. Well, Russell's book certainly disappoints. It is very poorly and awkwardly written and edited. The only new information that I gleaned from this book was gossipy. If one wishes to learn substantive information about Lady Bird (and of course about LBJ), Caro's biographies are a far superior source.

As pertains to Lady Bird, the book is alright. Early in the book, however, the author makes a statement that in my mind caused me to wonder just a little if the rest of the book would be on target, that statement being as to Lyndon Johnson having "given us Vietnam". Unfortunate statement, as Vietnam was well underway before LBJ took the helm, even before Kennedy. If the author can't get THIS glaring fact straight, then how can I really trust the rest of the book? A better read, for those who care to dig deep and get facts, "Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His TImes 1961 - 1973" by Robert Dallek is a better picture, giving us the real Lady Bird, much better than Ms. Russell's work. Ms. Russell's book gives a good detail of Lady Bird's early life, but the Dallek book gives us the Lady Bird that means the most - what a great woman!

It's remarkable that there has never been a biography of Lady Bird Johnson until now. Jan Jarboe Russell's is a triumph. It changed my view of the Johnson presidency. Lady Bird is Hera to LBJ's Zeus. A wonderful, textured, warm and inside rendering of an American presidency and its most intimate moments.