BIRTHDAY | Robert Caro, 85

L to R: Alec Baldwin, Jules Feiffer,
Robert Caro, East Hampton Library,
2015. Photo by JTMarlin.

October 30, 2020—Happy 85th birthday, Robert Caro. A New Yorker by birth, Caro is known for his two in-depth biographies, of Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson (five volumes so far, or is it six?), to which he has devoted his lifetime. 

These congratulations are a reprise of the Happy Birthday posted here on your 80th, five years ago.

Congratulations also on the fine tribute to you today from Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac, from which this is extracted:

As an investigative reporter for Newsday, Robert Caro wrote why a proposed bridge across Long Island Sound from Rye to Oyster Bay would be a bad idea. It was promoted by Robert Moses, the urban planner. Caro had been convinced his articles would reverse the decision to build the bridge, but the state’s Assembly voted to begin construction. Caro was stunned. He said: 

I got in the car and drove home to Long Island, and I kept thinking to myself: ‘Everything you’ve been doing is baloney. You’ve been writing under the belief that power in a democracy comes from the ballot box. But here’s a guy who has never been elected to anything, who has enough power to turn the entire state around, and you don’t have the slightest idea how he got it.

Caro's latest book, on his
work habits. Previewed in
The New Yorker.

Caro took seven years to write his 1,300-page biography of Moses, The Power Broker (1974). He was so broke while he was writing the book that his wife sold their Long Island house without telling him. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction [he won again with his LBJ biography]. To write biography well, Robert Caro believes it must read like fiction. He says:

Rhythm matters. Mood matters. Sense of place matters. All these things we talk about with novels, yet I feel that for history and biography to ­accomplish what they should accomplish, they have to pay as much attention to these devices as novels do. 

Caro keeps a strict routine when writing, like wearing a suit and a tie and keeping the same hours every day. He interviewed LBJ's speechwriter 22 times and lived in Texas for several years while doing research.

Comment: I was introduced to Robert Caro in New York City in 1974 when The Power Broker first came out, I think by Julius C. C. Edelstein, who was a fellow professor when I taught in the CUNY system in the 1970s. 

I have met the Caros several times since then at the Authors' Night in East Hampton, where they have a summer home. He has described both of his biographies as investigations into power—how it is acquired and how it is used. He has said: “The power of the historian is the power of the truth, a very basic thing.”

The Guardian published a fine interview with Caro last year that includes his wife Ina. She was Caro's sole research collaborator and recently wrote two books of her own on traveling in France. One of her books describes the palace that Fouquet built; it inspired Alice and me to visit it when we were in France recently.

Acknowledgments, Woodin Bio (Updated October 15, 2015)

THANKS to the following for assistance with the book

•  Doug Clemmons, an attorney whom I have known since we both worked on Capitol Hill in 2009-2011, who accompanied me to Berwick for the Borough's historical association annual meeting.
• Ashley Kim, who read the entire book in August 2015 and commented.
• Frank Evina of Mocanaqua, Pa. (formerly 37 years with the Library of Congress),.
• Bill Selden of Berwick, Pa., and other descendants of ACF employees.
• The Library of Congress, the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the British Library in London, the Vero Beach Library, the Harvard Club of New York Library.
• The Society of Genealogists in London; the FDR Presidential Library in Hyde Park, N.Y.;

Woodin Descendants:

• Charmaine Caldwell, for many emails and interviews about her family
• Anne Harvey Gerli, granddaughter of Will Woodin, daughter of Anne Woodin Harvey – provided interviews and photos.
• Suzanne Phipps Hyatt, for some of my best photos and huge patience with details of the genealogy of the descendants of Will Woodin.
• John Mackall, descendant of William S. Rowe - interviews and email correspondence.
• Charlie Miner Jr., grandson of Will Woodin, son of Mary Woodin Miner – many interviews, a notebook, Raggedy Ann songbook, several photos.
• Woody Rowe, grandson of Will Woodin, and Libby Woodin Rowe – extensive notes and recollections.
• Lucy Sachs, descendant of William S. Rowe – access to family photo album and permission to use photos.



Album provided to me, created by
Bill Phipps' mother.


• Eve Woodin, great-granddaughter of Will Woodin, granddaughter of William H. Woodin II of Tucson, Ariz., daughter of Peter Woodin.
• Peter Woodin, interview.
• Mimi Rude Bell, for a wonderful set of photos she took with her father Charlie Miner in 2010.
• Bill Phipps of Bloomfield, N.J., for giving me access to his mother's giant album of clippings about Will Woodin's musical performances.



Visited Bloomfield, N.J., to meet
with Bill Phipps.

• William H. Woodin III, for new information about his father and grandfather.

Amagansett, N.Y.,  Library
Seth Bank, Reference Librarian – obtained several relevant books.
Judith Wolfe, local historian – helped search for photos.

Berwick, Pa. Press-Enterprise
Story by Susan Schwartz in April 2015 on my talk to the Berwick Historical Society. Well-written story, helpful to my thinking.

Berwick, Pa., Historical Society
Tom Adams
Jim Stout, Curator of the Jackson Mansion

Devon Yacht Club, Amagansett, N.Y.
John Hossenlopp, former Commodore – answered numerous questions about Devon files.
Pat Hollmann, General Manager – referred me to experts on different topics.
Bob Tepe, former member of the History/Archive Committee – provided access to archives. Stephanie Fleetwood, former Archivist, author of Devon history – provided sources.
Doug Geddes, boat owner – referred me to Swede Edwards.
Alice Tepper Marlin – for enabling this work in countless ways
 Robert Wick – Help with search for a student intern to assist with the work.
Ann Roberts - Introduced me to Anne Harvey Gerli, Woodin's granddaughter, and thereby got this whole project under way.

East Hampton, N.Y.  Historical Association
Liz Neill, Assistant to the Director – assistance with tracing photos that were on display at the "Jazz Age" exhibit at the Clinton Academy.

East Hampton Library
Steve Boerner - Archivist, Long Island Collection
Children's Librarian - provided access to Raggedy Ann songbooks.

New York Public Library
Genealogy and Local History Section

North Sea Radiator, Southampton
Amund ("Swede") Edwards – huge set of Lloyd’s Registry annuals and other photos through which I traced the history of Will Woodin's boat, the Nanin.

Mystic Seaport Museum
Picture Department, Rosenfeld Collection.

East Hampton Star
Baylis Greene, for excellent editorial suggestions. The East Hampton Star published "GUESTWORDS" columns about Will Woodin on April 11 and August 1, 2013 and subsequently. These columns were very helpful for getting feedback and moving along the writing of the bio.