Jeffrey Frank, author of the bestselling Ike and Dick, returns with the “beguiling” (The New York Times) first full account of the Truman presidency in nearly thirty years, recounting how a seemingly ordinary man met the extraordinary challenge of leading America through the pivotal years of the mid-20th century. The nearly eight years of Harry Truman’s presidency—among the most turbulent in American history—were marked by victory in the wars against Germany and Japan; the first use of an atomic bomb and the development of far deadlier weapons; the start of the Cold War and the creation of the NATO alliance; the Marshall Plan to rebuild the wreckage of postwar Europe; the Red Scare; and the fateful decision to commit troops to fight a costly “limited war” in Korea. Historians have tended to portray Truman as stolid and decisive, with a homespun manner, but the man who emerges in The Trials of Harry S. Truman is complex and surprising. He believed that the point of public service was to improve the lives of one’s fellow citizens and fought for a national health insurance plan. While he was disturbed by the brutal treatment of African Americans and came to support stronger civil rights laws, he never relinquished the deep-rooted outlook of someone with Confederate ancestry reared in rural Missouri. He was often carried along by the rush of events and guided by men who succeeded in refining his fixed and facile view of the postwar world. And while he prided himself on his Midwestern rationality, he could act out of instinct and combativeness, as when he asserted a president’s untested power to seize the nation’s steel mills. The Truman who emerges in these pages is a man with generous impulses, loyal to friends and family, and blessed with keen political instincts, but insecure, quick to anger, and prone to hasty decisions. Archival discoveries, and research that led from Missouri to Washington, Berlin and Korea, have contributed to an indelible and “intimate” (The Washington Post) portrait of a man, born in the 19th century, who set the nation on a course that reverberates in the 21st century, a leader who never lost a schoolboy’s love for his country and its Constitution.

An absorbing account of "the most intriguing--and dysfunctional--political marriage in history" ("The" "New York Times Book Review," front page review).
One of the most acclaimed political biographies of our time, Jeffrey Frank's "Ike and Dick" takes you inside the strained and complex relationship of two fascinating American leaders--hailed as "top-drawer as political history" (Russell Baker, "The New York Review of Books)" and "one of the best books ever written about Richard Nixon" (Thomas Mallon, "The New Yorker").
For nearly twenty years, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon shared a political and private association that deeply affected both men and their turbulent era. In a work of "compelling can't-put-it-down history" (Joe Klein, "Time" columnist) filled with "marvelously cringe-inducing anecdotes" ("The Wall Street Journal"), Frank reveals sides of the two that you've never seen. He offers fresh views of the striving, uneasy young Nixon and of Eisenhower, the legendary commander in failing health, far more comfortable with international affairs than with problems besetting the United States. Behind the scenes and beyond the headlines, "Ike and Dick, "informed by deep archival research and dozens of interviews, provides a captivating look at the presidency and the nation. It will become essential reading for generations of Americans.

"This is the real Andersen, restored to life, in the flavor of Danish. He was a perpetual traveler and guest who left behind only this work, and here at last you will find him."--Garrison Keillor
"Hans Christian Andersen, in aesthetic eminence, is comparable to Dickens and the later Tolstoy. In the cultural dumbing-down represented by the Harry Potter phenomenon, adults and children alike "need" the actual Andersen, here made brilliantly available by the Franks."--Harold Bloom, editor of "Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages"

"This beautiful and useful volume combines new translations of the canonical stories with some of the original illustrations. The introduction and annotations are clear and helpful."--"New York Times Book Review
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"The Franks' edition finally sets the stories straight, and a valuable opening essay clarifies the tale most often told wrong--Andersen's own life story."--Elise Soukup, "Newsweek"

"A superb book of Andersen's tales, lively to read and true to the originals. . . . [It] is a perfect place to start for anyone interested in understanding the complex nature of Andersen and his writings."--Jack Zipes, professor of German at the University of Minnesota, in the Minneapolis "Star Tribune
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"The translation of Andersen's tales by Diana Crone Frank and Jeffrey Frank is cause for real celebration. This edition is far superior to other collections."--Maria Tatar, author of "Off with Their Heads! Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood
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In Brandon Sladder, author Jeffrey Frank has created one of the most memorable rogues in contemporary fiction. A prominent Washington columnist, Sladder has known just about everyone of importance. He has spoken on intimate terms with world leaders, been a witness to enormous change, and expressed weighty opinions on important matters of state. When former President Bush encourages him to write his memoirs, Sladder believes that his life story could add much more than a footnote to our age and attempts to burnish his image for posterity. What emerges instead is the story of an irresistibly loathsome man and the misadventures that got him to the top. Self-important, social climbing, and dangerously oblivious, Brandon Sladder is the type of character everyone loves to hate.
By turns hilarious and dismaying, "The Columnist" is a dead-on, elegantly written portrait of the media and politics of the second half of the twentieth century.

In the twilight of the Reagan era, as prospects appear brighter than ever for a Democratic restoration, the lawyers, lobbyists, advisers and socialites of Washington are looking ahead -- but over their shoulders, too. With good reason. Charlie Dingleman, a former congressman, has gotten a tantalizing job offer that could rescue him from the drudgery of lawyering. But he's being shadowed by an increasingly unsavory rumor started by Judith Grust, a young associate at Charlie's firm. Judith has a few dark secrets of her own, like one she shares with Hank Morriday, a lazy, shiftless welfare policy expert. That helps to drive Hank into the orbit of Candy Romulade, a P.R. executive paralyzed by a dwindling client list. Then Candy signs up a veteran local anchorman, who has a very peculiar view of the world. As these men and women collide in a lusty, mad scramble, their savage ambitions and reversals of fortune test the idea that there's no such thing as bad publicity. The result, Bad Publicity, is a pitch-perfect, often poignant novel in the classic Swiftian mold.

Years of backstabbing and betrayal start to catch up with one of Washington's elite opinion writers, "a character that deserves to jump outside the Beltway and enter the language like 'Uncle Tom, ' 'Peter Pan, ' or 'Scrooge.'" (Ron Charles, Christian Science Monitor). During a cocktail party, George H. W. Bush encourages Brandon Sladder, the prominent Washington columnist, to write his memoirs. Sladder has, after all, known just about everyone of importance. From talking on intimate terms with world leaders, being a witness to enormous change, and expressing his weighty opinions on matters of state, he believes that his own story could add so much more than a footnote to our age. But what is meant to be a look back at his life and our times turns out to be far more revealing. The Columnist is Sladder's attempt to burnish his image for posterity. What emerges is something else: the misadventures of an irresistibly loathsome man--self-important, social climbing, dangerously oblivious, "an unforgettable character who is lovably hateable" (Susan Orlean, author of The Library Book) and one of the most memorable rogues in contemporary fiction. The Columnist is a dead-on, elegantly written portrait of the media and politics of the second half of the twentieth century--"It's Balzac as word-processed by Philip Roth, only, for my two cents...funnier...[A] great American novel" (Christopher Buckley, author of Thank You for Smoking).