What I learned After 31 Barnes and Noble Signings

The first thing I learned is people just want to hear a good story. In fact they are dying to hear a good story that will take them out of their everyday life for even a minute. I cant tell you the amount of times people came in looking for another book and walked out with mine. Especially when they are looking for a book to give someone. Many times people would buy all three of my titles after I spoke to them about my newest book. It is as if once they had stopped and started to listen then all sorts of possibilities opened up.

The second thing I learned after 31 signings in two months is that people don't care about price. Al Capone and the 1933 Worlds Fair lists out the door at 36 dollars and my other two nonfiction titles Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson and Forging A President How the Wild West Created Teddy Roosevelt lists out the door at about 32 dollars  On an average I would sell every signing 20-50 hardcovers. I can count on one hand the number of times people did not buy because of price. If the story is good and people want the book then people are willing to pay.

Women seem to buy more than men. They just do. Men are more reluctant to stop. Lets call it the hunter gather syndrome. Women are just more open to something new while many times men wont even stop to consider. Women think of others and are always considering what might make a great gift although many women buy for themselves. Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson was a surprise buy for many women who were caught up in the story of our First Woman President. Saying that, men did buy and  Forging A President How the Wild West Created Teddy Roosevelt was a favorite. I learned never to assume. Many times I was surprised at who was a reader of history and who was not.

People want something for free. Even if it is something small. It is an icebreaker if nothing else. I give them a small business card with the name of my book on it and that initiates a conversation.  It is nothing really but a reason to stop and if they don't buy they take it with them and there is a chance they may buy later. I have had many people circle back later and buy a book. Also I learned people you don't think will buy will surprise you every time. So I give everyone a card and I cant tell you the amount of times I was floored when someone I assumed would never buy my book would do it.

Authors are their own best salesmen. A signed copy of a book by the author is coveted. People like having their book inscribed to them or to someone they will give it to. Many times people told me they had never met an author before. I am literally surrounded by bestsellers when I am selling books and yet they just lay there and people breeze right past them. I know my book. I can talk to anybody about Al Capone, The Worlds Fair, Sally Rand, Edith Wilson or Teddy Roosevelt. The biggest advantage Barnes and Nobles has over Amazon is that it is full of human beings who interact with other human beings. People like talking to an author who is dressed up in a tie and a vest and who has a story to tell and will also listen to a story.  I can't tell you the amount of stories I have heard about Al Capone from people who bought my book.

Finally people seem to buy during the day more than the evening. If I arrived around eleven AM then there seemed to be a sweet spot right up to about 4PM. Usually I stayed in the store four hours. By then I usually ran out of books or out of gas. Evenings were hit and miss and yet I have been in a Barnes and Noble when it was absolutely dead and sold all my books. More books are better than a few. It is better to stack up fifty or a hundred books than twenty. At one Barnes and Noble outside of Chicago there were 65 books stacked on a single table and they all sold. More books implies a successful author who has come to the store to sign his or her latest.

 In the end I chewed through thirty packs of gum. Ruined three ties with coffee. I was probably asked where the bathrooms were fifty times where the calendars were twenty times and where the Starbucks was at least ten. I gave out four thousand cards and bumped into that many people. I sold over 600 hardcovers in the last two months of my three nonfiction titles It was hard work and I have a real appreciation for the Barnes and Noble employees and the managers who do this for eight hours straight. But it was also fun.

What I learned finally is that  it isn't price that sells books and it isn't having an online store at your fingertips. You just need to tell a good story. Believe me... people will listen.

William Hazelgrove

The Naked Charlie Rose Show

Like most people who watched Charlie Rose I was always a little baffled. The set was austere with Charlie and his guest sitting in darkness. The no frills we are serious demeanor of Charlie was always broken up by his sycophantic laughter that was always a joke only he was in on. And then it was just this sort of low energy thing that ended with Charlie looking at the camera like he had nothing more than getting to the heart of the matter at his core. Now we know what was really at his core, a naked man.

I mean Harvey masturbating. Spacey grabbing young boys. Franken groping, tonguing, taking photos of himself grabbing a woman while she slept is all bad but these guys  were out there and it wasn't really that surprising. But Rose came from the other side of serious journalism where you would think his big excitement was reading the NY Times Editorial page and gabbing with other journalists at some swanky upper East Side restaurant. Not so.

Charlie liked to get out of his shower and walk up on twenty somethings without a stitch of clothes. He did the open robe thing all hot and slimy from the shower. He liked to grab young assistants in his car while driving through Manhattan. He liked to get people to sleep over and then go swimming nude and walk up on them while they worked on their laptops. Gone was the super serious droopy eyed Charlie drilling down to some existential point in his blacked out studio. In his place was the naked guy who would can the assistants who talked about being grabbed or exposed to his wet old body.

So what can we say about any of this? Charlies show is gone. No more fits of weird laughter in the slowed down time of another era. His lifestyle was pretty fabulous. Jetting off in private jets to interview people all over the world with lots of young assistants in tow. To much is given much is expected. Too bad he cant' interview himself. That would have been a good topic.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Never Listen to a CD of your own Book

The CD of my books usually come a couple of weeks after they are published. It is kind of cool to see a miniaturized cover of the book on the case and you put it on the mantle and there it sits. The other day on my way to a speech I grabbed it for a ride up to the North Shore. The woman who read the book was fairly famous and very good. Her voice was melodic and soothing and the first six chapters flew by. But I noticed I was growing tired. My book Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson has a lot going on and my brain was getting fatigued.  By the time I reached the venue I was intellectually exhausted.

So I arrive at the speech and set up the PowerPoint.  My speeches basically consist of me retelling the book but I had that women's symphonic voice still in my head and I wondered vaguely if I might mix her up with my recitation of the high points of the book. I was introduced and I went up and grabbed the microphone confidently and made a few wry comments about the book and I clicked up the first slide. It was a Bull Moose. 

Now when this happens you have a few seconds to find your footing. This slide should have been at the end and here it was at the beginning. So I clicked again. There was an old car. I still have that woman droning on somewhere in the early chapters of my book. I click again and see the sheep Edith Wilson bought for the Red Cross during World War I.  The PowerPoint had lost its mind and the lady was still reciting my book. 

I made my way back to the podium and put the microphone into the holder. Then I explained something about the PowerPoint not working and with the sheep still on the screen I started over and gave the presentation without the PowerPoint. By the time I reached the end people had forgotten about it and the speech was a success. But I didn't . I found out later that by importing the Powerpoint into the computer of the venue it had scrambled the slides. But I knew the real culprit.

When I reached my car I ripped the CD out of the player and put it back in the case. Never to be opened again.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Madam President Ruled in 1919

Whenever I do signings for any book I always sell a lot of Madam President The Secret  Presidency of Edith Wilson. I start by telling people we already had a woman president. Usually people laugh but then I tell them to go to .gov and read about first ladies because there in Edith's bio is the statement that she ran the executive for two years. She did. It was a great cover up of a sitting Presidents inability to govern and his wife taking over and running the United States for two years.

Hard to believe really. The next question is how come I don't know this. A lot of history is papered over with mythology. The facts get lost under agendas and historical bias. Historians are loathe to say that Edith Wilson was President. It does not fit in the Wilson historical context. It is also too fantastic to believe. How could this be pulled off? No radio for one thing. Newspapers were the primary source of news and people were not used to seeing the President.

A press that was complicit in the cover up. Or at least a press that didn't question. Yet there were papers that did speculate that Woodrow Wilson had a stroke and his wife was running the country. But it didn't get much traction. Then Edith herself made sure her tracks were covered in a 1939 memoir where she said she never made any decisions but was just a steward. None of this is true. The fact is Edith Wilson was the President in 1919 albeit unelected and ran the country until 1921. Believe it or not.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

The 25th Amendment Would Not Have Removed Woodrow Wilson When Edith Took Over

A lot of talk of using the 25th amendment against Trump but the truth is that will be difficult.  It wouldn't have worked against Woodrow Wilson either. It wasn't passed until after Kennedy was assassinated but Woodrow Wilson is the closest we have to a Trump situation. Wilson had a stroke, was paralyzed and could barely put five sentences together. His wife, doctor, and Chief of Staff came up with a plan to hide him away and let Edith Wilson run the government. They pulled it off all the way to the end of his term and basically it was the best kept secret until recently.

But there was a movement to have Wilson step down and it is reminiscent of what might happen if the cabinet tries to remove Trump. The 25th amendment says basically the cabinet along with the vice president can vote to have the president removed if the president is incapacitated or unable to fulfill the duties of the presidency. When Wilson collapsed Secretary of State Lansing made a move to have him removed. He called the cabinet together and then demanded Secretary Tumulty and Dr. Grayson come and assert the President was incapacitated.

Secretary Tumulty said  no. He said "not while the President is flat on his back." And then Lansing asked Grayson if he would certify that the President was too sick to carry on the duties of President. Grayson shook his head and said absolutely not. And then Tumulty issued a warning that he would let the President know who was trying to remove him. The cabinet meeting ended with the full cabinet wishing the President a speedy recovery.  Lansing would later be fired and in no small part because Edith and the President never forgave him for his treachery.

It is not so simple to remove a sitting President....even when they are paralyzed and bedridden and their wife is running the country.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Selling Books at Printers Row Chicago

You get there early and no one is in your tent yet. You unload your books williamhazelgrove.com and position them on the table along with your bookmarks, water, pad, money for change. Other people arrive. The temperature will soon be in the nineties and your tent is in the middle of Dearborn Street. This is one of the few times you are shoulder to shoulder with other authors selling books. This is good and bad. You are all after the same customers and it is a bit of  an open market with everyone pitching. Nine O'clock rolls around and the first people pass by.

Your books are hardcovers but this doesn't matter. People will pay 30.00 for a book they want. The  man across the street is selling everything for three bucks. You begin to sweat and now you are pushing up against the other authors because suddenly the tent is full. It is already hot, heat rash hot, and the water is not enough. The heat is an enemy that zaps your energy and you need every bit of it to pitch your book over and over and over.  This will go on for two days.

You would like to think you are beyond Printers Row. That your books should magically sell themselves and there are a lot of self published authors there. Your books are more expensive with a big publisher who will not discount. But this is the Midwest Mecca for books and it is long hot and grueling and you fall into bed exhausted and dehydrated at the end of the day. Your books sell out twice and at the end you take home a lot less books than you came with.

You wake on Monday wondering where the weekend went and then you remember, Printers Row. You will be there again next year with another book.

Forging A President How the Wild West Created Teddy Roosevelt

How Barnes and Noble Can Survive and Thrive

Barnes and Noble has been under siege for some time by Amazon. They just hired another CEO to get sales moving in the right direction. They are scratching their head on how to compete against people clicking away on their books. Barnes and Noble is not exploiting their biggest advantage, their physicality and the physicality of their authors. Let me explain what I mean.

I do a fair amount of book signings at Barnes and Noble. My book Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson came out in the fall and my latest is out May 1 Forging A President How the Wild West Created Teddy Roosevelt. So I have been in the stores. Here is what I tell the manager. Put me in during your busiest days if you can if not I will take whatever time you have. When I am in the store I usually sell every copy of my books. And I don't have people coming to the store to see me. In fact I sell all my books to people who had not even heard of my books when they walk in. How do I do it?

What I do is when people pass my signing table I talk to them. I tell them about my book about the story of our First Woman President Edith Wilson who took over the White House in 1919 and ran the government for two years. I tell them about Teddy Roosevelt losing his wife and mother on the same day and then going West for three years. People want to hear a good story. They want to read a good book. And then I tell them I will sign the book and it is game over. A sale. It doesnt matter if I have 5 books to sell or 20...I can sell them all by just talking to people.

If I was the powers that be at Barnes and Noble, I would have authors in the store every day of the week and surprise people by having them talk to people about their books. I would not have them sitting behind a table and waiting for people to talk to them. Have them rove the store. The very advantage of a physical store over the internet is that it is full of real live people. I see people walking around in Barnes and Noble looking for a good book. Imagine if  "surpise authors" all over the country were chatting it up in the stores with customers. The books would fly off the shelf. No one is more motivated to sell their book than an author.

Believe me, I know.

William Hazelgrove Website

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson
Forging A President How the Wild West Created Teddy Roosevelt

Why Publishers Drop Authors

It's simple. The authors book don't sell. It used to be publishers would bring authors along. This ended about thirty years ago if not more. Now if you do not sell then you don't get another book contract. You are simply done with that publisher. The author may kill him or herself for the book only to be unceremoniously dropped. The author then has to find another home but this is easier said than done.

So that leaves marketing. If you dont' market then you will surely be dropped. Hats off to the authors whose books magically sell without doing a thing. But for  the rest of us mortals people need to be informed a book has just been published. It is a reality of the internet age that our attention spans have grown shorter with a plethora of entertainment vying for our nanosecond focus. But that doesn't mean you can throw up your hands.

Once upon a time in a land far away authors like Fitzgerald and Hemingway sipped martinis and absinthe on the West Bank while waiting for their royalty checks. This then is the literary fantasy but then Fitzgerald at the time of his death was barely selling and Hemingway was a master at media manipulation. So if you look at it that way, maybe the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Madam President

Why Do So Few People Know About Our First Woman President?

That's easy. History is written by the victors. And the victors were men. They wrote the history in 1921 the year the Edith Wilson Presidency ended. And for the next fifty years they held the Woodrow Wilson legacy together. Edith Wilson wrote a memoir in 1939 that claimed she was only a "steward" but never President. She too was committed to Woodrow Wilson's legacy to the point her relatives were never allowed to ask her about the President. That door was shut.

And so our First Woman President skirted the pages of history. It was always that lurking factoid. Something about a President who had a massive stroke and his wife stepped then stepped in. But it never got traction and the books that came out danced around the issue. A later history of Edith and Woodrow went so far as to claim Edith Wilson was power mad and grabbed power but never recognized her for running the White House from 1919 to 1921.

The government finally recognized what she did on a website that summarizes the first ladies. On .gov there is a reference to Edith that simply says she ran the Executive Branch for two years. It isn't much, but it is a beginning.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

What Happened to the Kindle?

You remember that funny thing that lit up and then went dead really fast. Or how about that thing you tried to read in the sun and it was like a black piece of slate. Or that thing where you never knew what page you were on and couldn't tell when you would finish the book or if the pages were marked and you couldn't spill jelly or coffee on it or throw it in your backpack or get it wet or find that one book you know you downloaded but now it is just gone. You know the thing that was supposed to be the IPOD of books. What happened to it?

I know I know. There are a lot of people out there who are happy kindle users but it is weird when the hardcover of my book  outpaces the kindle by four to one. People seem willing to plunk down 29.00 for a hardcover instead of getting an electronic version of less than half the price. The bigger question is why didn't it blow away all those pulpy books especially hardcovers.
Could it be readers are different than people who listen to music and while spotify tore the music biz to pieces the kindle fizzled like a bottle rocket.

The rub on this is the kindle flat lined somewhere and the novelty wore off and people went back to buying books. I am a perfect example. My kindle is jammed with books. And for a while that was my thing. No more books. Just electronic. But I missed marking up my books, I missed bending the pages, knowing how far i had to go...I missed READING a book. It is different. When I asked my comp class  in college who had a kindle? Not one hand went up.

So maybe it will come back. But until then bring on the coffee and jelly and bend back those pages and throw that bad boy by the tub. And the great thing is you don't have to plug it  in. My own kindle sits on my dresser...covered in dust.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Those Tough as Nails Feminists

They were tough. When I was growing up in Baltimore the feminist movement was in full flower. My mother was on board as were many East Coast Kennedyesque women who were willing to march, lay down in the street and do whatever it took to advance women's right. I hung out with a kid named Matt. He was cool. His parents were real hippies. His brother was a hippy. His father had long hair and his mother...well she drove an VW Micro bus, wore her hair down to her waist, wore high boots, long coats, and did not take anything from anyone. 

She was the activist mom of  the early seventies and had signs in her garage from demonstrations. His mother scared the hell out of me. One time I didn't eat the crusts of my tuna fish sandwich. She turned her dark eyes on me with her peace sign hanging down. Do you know how many kids are starving in China Billy? I did not. Well there are many and they would kill for those crusts. From then on I ate the crusts. 

But I think about my mother and Matt's mom and how they took nothing from anyone. And I think about the women's movement today. They will have to get tough because power is not given up easily and they are facing probably the most hostile administration in history to women's rights. It will be a tough fight...but you know what, I still eat my crusts. 

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

The Secret Presidency of 1919 Could Happen Again

Whenever there is a vacuum of power someone moves in. When Woodrow Wilson fell ill in 1919 Edith Wilson took over and the ran the government for two years. No one knew and most people still don't. I am amazed at how many people know nothing about the Edith Wilson presidency. But lets take our current president. Donald Trump does not read. At all. He does not like complicated facts or data. His attention span is 140 characters. He exists in bytes and television  and delegates off everything except the bold command. That means there is a HUGE power vacuum because after the initial awe inspiring order there are the details. Like the immigration order Bannon worked up. It is just the beginning.

The point is the 25th amendment that calls for the vice president to take over if the president cannot fulfill his duties will never get invoked. Trump will continue to skate on the ice leaving Bannon and others down below to enact policy. It is in the details after all as we can see from this weekends fiasco. The Secret Presidency does not necessarily have to involve someone becoming enfeebled or ill. Someone could have no real interest in the job itself.

And that is Donald. After his game of RISK he grows bored. Make the bold statement. YOU'RE FIRED. A WALL. BAN THE MUSLIMS. Then go play golf or goof around in Trump Towers. Power lies with those who grab it. A short attention span and an addiction to drama is a perfect setup for a man who wants to smash the Means of Power.

 Don't you think so...comrade?   

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

                                                                                                                                                                                

The New Art of Selling Books

Selling books keeps morphing. Before it was the bookstore and then it became the Internet. Authors were the man sitting behind the desk who magically sold books at signings. This was the golden age. The public wanted the book and the author was there to give it to them. We have seen  lots of photos of the dapper author sitting behind a table with one arm up and a book under his pen. Then the Internet came along and knocked that author right on his duff. You now sold books on the net and hours logged on social media hopefully converted to book sales.

Then came the ebook. Game over  or so everyone thought. Surely the Ipod was a cautionary tale and books would soon be devalued as a quaint artifact of the printing press era. Certainly Kindles would rule the day. But then a strange thing happened...readers rebelled. They quit plugging in their Kindles and what do you know a song is different from a book. Something about an intellectual exercise and readers prefer something tangible versus bits and bytes. The ebooks revolution fizzled down into the black screen of an ereader on a bright sunny day.

So people went back to buying books. But there is a different way to sell now. The author cannot sit behind his table any longer. He must get out there and "hand sell" his book. This was the way books were originally sold before conglomeration and mass culture. The bookseller would introduce the customer to a new book and the customer would buy. What a concept. So we are now in a new era. Authors... get out from behind your tables.


Madam, President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

The Experiential View of History

People may not agree with your thesis and that is ok. Traditionally history books have been a recitation of facts capped off with a thesis that supposedly is supported by these facts. I like big thick history books for  my own personal reading but I am not a majority. In fact I do not really believe in the method. History books are often judged by citing new information as the salient point of any new history book. Or that the author should come up with a radical thesis not presented before.

This is ridiculous. It is the journey not the destination. Unfortunately many authors rely on the  old method of bigger is better. People do not want to be  buried in information so a publisher can sell a five hundred page book. It is connotation versus denotation; what is implied is always much powerful than what is literally stated. This is true of fiction and nonfiction.

But some writers feel that the proliferating of  facts justifies the thesis. History should be told in scenes like a novel. In the year 2017  this is the job of narrative nonfiction. In Madam President I leave it up to the reader to decide if Edith Wilson was the president. It is through the multifarious layering of the story in scenes that  the reader arrives at truth or verisimilitude. To do anything else is playing  with a stacked deck.

I think people want to learn history but they also want to interact with it. The writing style should convey the story and step out of the way. A simple style is usually better sprinkled with bits of prose that carries the weight of the scene. To hit people over the head with heavy turgid facts is inviting the reader to close the book on a story that should be told.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Selling Books at Barnes and Noble

The first thing you do is find your table. It is by the door which is a good thing. You will be the first person someone sees when they walk in and walk out. Your books are piled up and displayed. Your sign is in place. The Community Relations Coordinator asks if you need anything. No you say. Water. No. Ok. She walks away and you pull out your bookmarks. These are your ammo. They have the name of your book and and the name of your forthcoming book. They are the giveaway. There is a chair behind the table. You won't use it.

You have seen those authors before. They are sitting in stores behind a table with their books piled high. People walk by the oprhan who stares into space. Some stop to ask the author if he or she knows where the bathroom is. Or do they know where they can find the next Harry Potter book. The forlorn author tells them in fact they are an author. People are not quite sure what to make of the them and they go back to being invisible.

In the year 2017 no author can afford to sit back unless you are a runaway bestseller and many are not. So that chair remains empty while you talk to every person who walks in and introduce yourself and your book. People actually like to talk to authors. They have chose a funky career path and that in itself is interesting. Four hours later you leave with your voice hoarse and your brain spent. You have sold seventeen books and handed  out fifty bookmarks. Not bad.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Grace Under Pressure in Ft Lauderdale

You want to be brave but gunfire gets you running. Hemingway's definition of courage rings in your ears as you run like hell. Fight or flight.  Grace under pressure. It should be a mantra that one can rely on but if you read  The Short Happy Life of Francis McComber or Red Badge of Courage then you know it does not always come the first time. In both of these stories the hero is found wanting in the first engagement with a lion or war. The fear is something you can taste and grace deserts you in that first flash.  

You tell yourself that the next time you will look and see what is going on. That you wont succumb to the numbing rush of adrenaline that gets you running like a star halfback. It is a very powerful drug. That you will somehow fight back and get control of yourself. In the Hemingway's short story and Red Badge of Courage both protagonists assert themselves in the second brush with death. One dies in the process and one makes it through but they have conquered their fear and grace is present under pressure. 

The problem is you don't know when that second challenge will come. It may never come and you want to think that you will be ready. But it is the very randomness of a shooting that is terrifying. You don't know. Nobody does. All you can do his hope that is doesn't and if it does you will be able to grab a little grace under pressure during  the primal fight to stay alive. 

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Did We Have A Woman President in 1919? Woodrow Wilson House Presentation American History TV

Presentation on Madam President the Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson American History TV CSPAN
Presentation on The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Edith Wilsons Movie Theatre at the White House

Edith decided that movies might help the President. Since the ravages of the stroke Wilson rarely left his bed and Edith needed to give him something to do. Besides the President had liked silent movies before and this seemed a logical way to entertain him and give some routine to the day. So the rug was pulled back in the Red Room of the White House and a projectionist was brought in. Wilson liked Westerns but he didn't want the accompaniment of a piano which was standard in most theatres. For the Edith  Wilson movie house the clicking of the projector would be the only sound.

So they did it. Wilson's Coney Island wheel chair was wheeled down to the Red Room and the curtains pulled. A sheet from the Lincoln bed was pinned to the wall. The chandeliers sparkled with the movie light as silent riders crossed the screen for the old man wrapped in blankets with his head cocked to one side like an expectant bird. Edith sat with him as they watched the movies in the morning and sometimes she would end up talking with her secretary or one of Wilson's assistants. Wilson didn't like films that were too intense so they had to show "mellow Westerns. During one of these conversations the President fell out of his chair in the darkness.

The projectionists was horrified and was convinced he just saw Woodrow Wilson expire. The question was whether to continue the film or let Edith Wilson know her husband had just died. He decided the film must continue. Edith eventually aw Woodrow on the floor and picked him up with assistance and put his back in his wheelchair. The film played on to the man in the darkness who watched with his head leaning left while the rest of the world galloped away.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Edith and Woodrows Excellent Adventure

They were going on the presidential yacht. They did that. Just pick and go on a drive or take the ship out for a cruise. In this way they were very much like a modern couple. Little junkets of reciting  poetry around fires or going horseback riding together. But on this day they headed out and went for a cruise and came upon a small island. The President and Edith took a small launch to the island and were surprised to find it deserted. The small cottages were all buttoned up tight with the shutters drawn. So they left.

But at the dock Wilson turned and looked back. Lets go  back and see what's going on he said turning around. He and Edith returned and they saw people outside the cottages. When they saw the president and Edith they scurried back inside except for one man. He stared at Woodrow Wilson. Wouldn't you be the president? I have that honor Wilson returned. The man breathed in relief. We thought you was the Germans come to invade.

The Germans had been sinking American ships as World War I raged overseas. In  1919 there was no radio and newspapers were sporadic for many islanders. Rumors of invasion swept over the coutnry routinely. Woodrow and Edith then talked to the man and the other islanders who came out to greet them. After a lunch they returned to the launch and went back to the ship. Within a year the United States would be at war with Germany and in the hell of World War I.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson
William Hazelgrove

The WGN Rick Kogan Show On a Snowy Night in Chicago

It takes forever to get there but you make it and you are hungry. You duck into Billy Goats and stare at the old journalists on the walls while you eat your two cheeseburgers chips no fries. There is John Belushi on the wall. Hes gone too. But you are there to go on at ten with one of the few real  journalists still left. Rick Kogans show is unique. He reads the books and wants to talk about them. As you emerge from the underground on the slushy sidewalks of Michigan Avenue you can feel Studs Terkel and Nelson Algren maybe Al Capone. They are all there on this cold wintry night.

But you are there to do the show and so you wait across the street  in a Starbucks and kill time. The Tribune Tower is massive and you can see the WGN studio through the window. You used to live not far from the studio in a high rise but that was a long time ago before kids and the suburbs. But the books always pull you back into the city You know you will be up back here one day with all those dead Chicago authors.

So you walk up and down Michigan Avenue and the snow is coming down harder. Not many people out now. It is Sunday night after all. A ten o'clock slot of live radio for thirty minutes is coveted. Especially with a man who can talk books. You finish a cigarette and look at the clock. Its cold. It's time to go into that Chicago night again and fill the air waves. Last of the Mohicans.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson