The Strange Death Of President Harding

While incarcerated in the Atlanta federal penitentiary in 1924 for larceny, conspiracy and some 100 violations of the Prohibition Act, Gaston B. Means, a former Harding Administration official and private investigator, met May Dixon Thacker, the sister of novelist Thomas Dixon, whose The Clansman (1905) had been transformed by D. W. Griffith into The Birth of a Nation for the big screen in 1915. Mrs. Thacker, the author of True Confessions, promised to help Means tell his story. After his release, Means spent day after day dictating to her. The resulting publication, The Strange Death of President Harding, raises some interesting points surrounding the circumstances of the President’s death during a nationwide speaking tour, and went on to become one of the bestselling books of 1930.

Available for the first time in paperback, The Strange Deaths of President Harding challenges readers to reexamine Warren G. Harding's rightful place in American history. For nearly half a century, the twenty-ninth president of the United States has consistently finished last in polls ranking the presidents. After Harding's untimely death in 1923, a variety of attacks and unsubstantiated claims left the public with a tainted impression of him. In this meticulously researched scrutiny of the mystery surrounding Harding's death, Robert H. Ferrell, distinguished presidential historian, examines the claims against this unpopular president and uses new material to counter those accusations. At the time of Harding's death there was talk of his similarity, personally if not politically, to Abraham Lincoln. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes described Harding as one of nature's noblemen, truehearted and generous. But soon after Harding's death, his reputation began to spiral downward. Rumors circulated of the president's death by poison, either by his own hand or by that of his wife; allegations of an illegitimate daughter were made; and question were raised concerning the extent of Harding's knowledge of the Teapot Dome scandal and of irregularities in the Veterans' Bureau, as well as his tolerance of a corrupt attorney general who was an Ohio political fixer. Journalists and historians of the time added to his tarnished reputation by using sources that were easily available but not factually accurate. In The Strange Deaths of President Harding, Ferrell lays out the facts behind these allegations for the reader to ponder. Making the most of the recently opened papers of assistant White House physician Dr. Joel T. Boone, Ferrell shows that for years Harding suffered from high blood pressure, was under a great deal of stress, and overexerted himself; it was a heart attack that caused his death, not poison. There was no proof of an illegitimate child. And Harding did not know much about the scandals intensifying in the White House at the time of his death. In fact, these events were not as scandalous as they have since been made to seem. In this meticulously researched and eminently readable scrutiny of the mystery surrounding Harding's death, as well as the deathblows dealt his reputation by journalists, Ferrell asks for a reexamination of Harding's place in American history.

Tells the story of Florence Harding's rise from young unwed mother to First Lady and reveals her influence behind Harding's ascent to America's most scandal-ridden presidency and her role in his death. The drama of her life is set against the stage of the White House in the Jazz Age, and involves exciting elements such as mistresses, blackmail, poisoning, and opium addicts. Includes bandw photos. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

2009 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title If George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are the saints in America’s civil religion, then the twenty-ninth president, Warren G. Harding, is our sinner. Prior to the Nixon administration, the Harding scandals were the most infamous of the twentieth century. Harding is consistently judged a failure, ranking dead last among his peers. By examining the public memory of Harding, Phillip G. Payne offers the first significant reinterpretation of his presidency in a generation. Rather than repeating the old stories, Payne examines the contexts and continued meaning of the Harding scandals for various constituencies. Payne explores such topics as Harding’s importance as a midwestern small-town booster, his rumored black ancestry, the role of various biographers in shaping his early image, the tension between public memory and academic history, and, finally, his status as an icon of presidential failure in contemporary political debates. Harding was a popular president and was widely mourned when he died in office in 1923; but with his death began the construction of his public memory and his fall from political grace. In Dead Last, Payne explores how Harding’s name became synonymous with corruption, cronyism, and incompetence and how it is used to this day as an example of what a president should not be.

The President’s Daughter, America’s first major kiss-and-tell political biography, caused a sensation when it was published in 1928. Nan Britton described her six-year affair with the late Warren G. Harding, most famously including trysts in a White House coat closet. President Harding’s paternity of Britton’s daughter Elizabeth Ann, born in 1919, was proved by DNA testing in 2015.

This biography introduces readers to Warren G. Harding including his early political career and key events from Harding's administration including the Teapot Dome scandal. Information about his childhood, family and personal life is included. A timeline, fast facts, and sidebars provide additional information. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Big Buddy Books is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.