Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The author, Matthew Algeo, a reporter for public radio, and probably not well known in historian/academic circles, and not a Medical Doctor, has yet, brought us a thoroughly researched and noteworthy book about Grover Cleveland's secret oral surgery. I especially liked this book because the author, a reporter, has written about another reporter (E.J. Edwards) who broke the story about Grover Cleveland's surgery, but was castigated by other reporters and publishers, until the lead Doctor, W.W. Keen, decided to write the definitive medical story himself, and contacted that reporter, who had had his reputation previously ruined. Algeo also gives excellent background of the historical period, including the desperate economic times, the labor and union movement, and the Silver vs. Gold standard controversy. This provides an excellent contextual background for the author's discussion of the oral surgery, and why Cleveland wanted it kept secret.
As an academic, I wished the author had included footnotes for the voluminous quotes made throughout the book. But the Acknowledgements section shows that Mr. Algeo has done his homework on this well-researched book. The only other drawback was the advertisement pages following the Index, somewhat reminiscent of the old Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew books of the 20th century, which included like-advertisements about forth-coming books in the series. In this case, Algeo has included 5 1/2 pages of advertisement for his other noteworthy book, "Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure." He has even included an excerpt from the Truman book. While I commend the author for the Truman book, it is a distraction from the Cleveland work. Otherwise, the Cleveland book is filled with pictures, diagrams, new information about the oral surgery, it's result, and the subsequent forensic testing of the material which was removed from his mouth. I especially appreciated Algeo's full treatment of what happened to the principal characters in the case. A page-turner which I highly recommend.
Click Here to see more reviews about: The President Is a Sick Man: Wherein the Supposedly Virtuous Grover Cleveland Survives a Secret Surgery at Sea and Vilifies the Courageous Newspaperman Who Dared Expose the Truth
On July 1, 1893, President Grover Cleveland vanished. He boarded a friend's yacht, sailed into the calm blue waters of Long Island Sound, and--poof!--disappeared. He would not be heard from again for five days. What happened during those five days, and in the days and weeks that followed, was so incredible that, even when the truth was finally revealed, many Americans simply would not believe it.
The President Is a Sick Man details an extraordinary but almost unknown chapter in American history: Grover Cleveland's secret cancer surgery and the brazen political cover-up by a politician whose most memorable quote was "Tell the truth." When an enterprising reporter named E. J. Edwards exposed the secret operation, Cleveland denied it. The public believed the "Honest President," and Edwards was dismissed as "a disgrace to journalism." The facts concerning the disappearance of Grover Cleveland that summer were so well concealed that even more than a century later a full and fair account has never been published. Until now.
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