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The Rascal King: The Life And Times Of James Michael Curley (1874-1958) Paperback – August 21, 2000
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Twice jailed while serving in office yet a champion of the people, builder of schools yet a shameless grafter, James Michael Curley was the stuff of legend long before his life became fiction in Edwin O'Connor's classic novel The Last Hurrah. As mayor of Boston, as a United States congressman, as governor of Massachusetts, Curley rose from the slums of South Boston in a career extending from the Progressive Era of Teddy Roosevelt to the ascendancy of the Kennedy sons. While Curley lived, he represented both the triumph of Irish Americans and the birth of divisive politics of ethnic and racial polarization; when he died, over one million mourners turned out to pay their respects in the largest wake Boston had ever seen.
Nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography, Beatty's spellbinding story of "the Kingfish of Massachusetts" is also an epic of his city, its immigrant people, and its turbulent times. It is simply biography at its best.
"Beatty's book is a delight--rich, witty, flowing, and full of insight about the nature of political corruption."--Constance Casey, Los Angeles Times
"A panoramic, exquisitely incisive biography that illuminates the triumphs, debacles, and personal sorrows of the irrepressible man known as Boston's 'Mayor of the Poor.'"--Robert Wilson, USA Today
- Print length620 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateAugust 21, 2000
- Dimensions9.02 x 5.92 x 1.5 inches
- ISBN-100306810026
- ISBN-13978-0306810022
- Lexile measure1320L
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"A truly brilliant biography." -- John Kenneth Galbraith, Chicago Tribune
"Hugely entertaining." -- Boston Sunday Globe
"Read this book this year if you read no other." -- Lawrence J. Goodrich, Christian Science Monitor
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- Publisher : Da Capo Press; Revised ed. edition (August 21, 2000)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 620 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0306810026
- ISBN-13 : 978-0306810022
- Lexile measure : 1320L
- Item Weight : 1.78 pounds
- Dimensions : 9.02 x 5.92 x 1.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,097,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,500 in Historical British Biographies
- #5,359 in Political Leader Biographies
- #18,923 in U.S. State & Local History
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Beaty seems intent on forcing the reader to carry a dictionary to get through the book. Not impressed by the unnecessarily difficult and arcane word usage. Also agree with other reviewers that his comments about current politics are distracting and not relevant for the most part. He confuses being a biographer with being a commentator.
Despite its shortcomings, the book is a good addition to political reading and I recommend it.
I would like to correct and add some information about the mysterious, diplomatic, elusive Mr. Willcox (or Wilcox), Mayor Curley's confidential secretary from the time about 1910, editor of the 'City Record' (during Curley’s 1st and 2nd term as mayor), editor of the Statistics Department under Mayor Nichols and Mayor Curley’s third term . Standish Willcox was born in New Bedford, MA, Nov. 18, 1870 (from Wilcox's birth record), not in 1880, as Beatty reported on p. 119. He may have been the reporter who covered the trial of Lizzie Borden in 1893 in New Bedford for the 'New Bedford Journal'. He did send dispatches on the trial to a Buffalo, New York paper who stated that in their coverage of the trial. By 1896, Wilcox was living in Boston where he worked as a secretary of an Emergency Hospital at 142 Kingston. Only in 1906 was he listed in the City Directory as a reporter, living on Columbus Ave.
Going by the description of Standish Wilcox from other sources, Beatty did include a photograph which may include Willcox. Wilcox was described as tall, with a taste for formal dress and top hat (not much help when others are also in formal attire) and carrying a Malacca cane. The tallest man in the second photograph after page 100 matches that description.
The story about the first meeting of Curley and Wilcox varies. Beatty used the version from an article in 1933, at the time of Wilcox’s death, which places their meeting in 1910 as related by Mayor Curley. In an article from June, 1923, Wilcox related meeting Curley on his wedding day in June 1906. (These can be found in James Michael Curley Scrapbooks, available online at Holy Cross college website.) I favor 1906 as the time period that they met, but I think the story from Curley’s ‘autobiography’ "I’d Do It Again", is the closest.
Jack Beatty should have done some scholarly research into the Fin Com investigation of 1917. He cryptically remarked on p. 193, that “Standish Willcox took the blame”. There was a massive cover up of Mayor Curley’s misdeeds by Atty. Daniel Coakley, DA Pelletier, Mr. Daly of Daly Plumbing Supply and Standish Willcox, editor of the City Record and confidential secretary to the mayor. The big mystery is why Standish Willcox made statements damaging to the mayor at a secret session of the Fin Com and then in the public hearing, claimed that the ‘transcript was in error’. In short, he denied his previous testimony. Was pressure brought to bear on the honest, reputable Mr. Willcox by Curley and Coakley, or had there been some hanky panky by the Fin Com members who were ‘out to get the mayor’?
Curley lost the election that took place as the Fin Com was finishing its investigation to Andrew James Peters in December 1917. The City Council tried to create a job to keep Wilcox on the payroll, but the new Mayor vetoed the idea. Instead Wilcox went to work in Washington until Curley was next in office. (Due, it was claimed, to James Curley’s influence with the Speaker of the House, Champ Clark. But perhaps because Champ Clark knew Willcox.) When Curley was out of office the next time, Wilcox worked in the Statistical Department under Mayor Nichols. When Curley was back in as mayor, Wilcox was again his social secretary until his death Jan. 2, 1933. (from newspaper articles of the time, some in James Michael Curley's Scrapbooks) Also from reading other books about Curley (‘The Purple Shamrock’ and ‘I’d Do It Again’) and newspaper articles, Standish Wilcox was well known in Boston and much loved especially by the City Hall reporters. It was reported that were 600 people at his funeral.
Plenty is said about the politicians who fought with Curley but very little about the man who, it appears, was his intimate friend for close to 30 years. Standish Willcox didn’t appear to have been dishonest or profited from the graft and corruption. The worst that I have uncovered about Willcox, is that he sacrificed his reputation to cover up for James Curley. Their friendship and loyalty through the years was legendary. It seems that Stanish Willcox was really the man that Diogenes was seeking. (P. 91, "I’d Do It Again" I'd Do It Again - Autobiography of James Michael Curley )
For more information, see my review of "The Purple Shamrock", by Joseph Dinneen
The Purple Shamrock: The Hon. James Michael Curley of Boston





