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This is the most authoritative and comprehensive of the Willkie biographies. The depth of research that went into this biography is truly remarkable; it contains the most detailed descriptions of Willkie's personal life, especially of his childhood in Elwood, Indiana. Whenever biographers have given differing accounts of an aspect of Willkie's life, I have taken Barnard's version as factual. Written by an English professor. 610 pages, 11 photographs.

The Lilly Library at Indiana University, Bloomington has Barnard's original manuscript (800 pages before the publisher cut it down) and the notes he made while researching his extensive Willkie biography. This material, in addition to the Willkie papers that the Lilly Library also houses, is an invaluable resource for serious Willkie scholars. A description of the Barnard materials can be found here.

A well-written and very sympathetic treatment of Willkie that was written by a longtime friend. It focuses on Willkie's political career from the mid 1930s onward, and thus devotes less attention to his early life. Written by the foreign editor of the New York Herald Tribune, who was one of two friends accompanying Willkie on his 1942 world tour. Unfortunately, Barnes did not include a bibliography or information on the sources he used to write this book. 405 pages, 0 photographs, 25 illustrations.

This book, published to commemorate the centennial of Willkie's birth, is a collection of essays by historians that provides a good perspective on Willkie's life and insightful analyses on his enduring contributions to American society. As it emphasizes analysis and not background, this book is best read after first reading a Willkie biography. Very good photographs. 184 pages, 17 photographs, 1 illustration.

As its title suggests, this book focuses on the political contest between Roosevelt and Willkie and it contains exceptional detail about Willkie's surge in 1940 and his victory at the GOP convention. The book, written by a former New York Times reporter, also gives a detailed account (and expert analysis) of the political and social situation in 1940. 210 pages, 14 photographs.

The most recent of the Willkie biographies, Dark Horse is the only biography written by someone born after Willkie's death. This is not a weakness; on the contrary, the passage of time has given the author the perspective to look back and develop a fresh analysis of Willkie's life. Dark Horse is a very enjoyable read, and is a good first choice for anyone beginning their research on the life of Wendell Willkie. Written by a political writer and columnist at the Chicago Tribune. 371 pages, 16 photographs. (Reprinted in 1989.)

The most recent book on Willkie's life, focusing on the lead-in to the 1940 convention, the five days of the convention itself, and the immediate aftermath. The book offers a day-by-day account of the convention, and argues that the nomination of Willkie (rather than an isolationist candidate) allowed Franklin D. Roosevelt to adequately prepare the United States for the coming world war. 274 pages, 15 photographs.

The first seven chapters of this thin book are reprints of newspaper articles Willkie wrote to address what he thought were the country's most pressing issues at the time: federal versus states' rights, race relations, Social Security, the post-war economy, labor, international trade, and foreign policy. The eighth chapter is Willkie's proposed Republican Party platform for the 1944 election, which he unsuccessfully tried to get the GOP to adopt. The final two chapters, reprinted from Collier's Magazine, criticize the outcomes of the 1944 Republican and Democratic national conventions.

The topics Willkie chose to address in these ten articles hint at the role he may have played in American politics had he not died shortly after the book's publication. 58 pages, 0 photographs.   Selected Quotations

A very engaging and readable account of Willkie's 1942 world tour as FDR's special envoy. See the One World page on this website for a detailed description of the contents of this best-selling book. 206 pages, 0 photographs.   Selected Quotations

(In 1944, The Limited Editions Club published an autographed, limited-edition version of One World subtitled "The photographic album edition: The faces and places that Willkie saw." This edition has 221 pages and 139 photographs. Read this version if you can find one of the 1,500 copies printed.)

Neal calls this book negative and flawed by a "reliance on questionable sources." Barnard says it suffers from a lack of "detailed documentation" and that many statements in it contradict his own research. 355 pages, 1 photograph.

This biography should be used with caution. Although it was written with Willkie's cooperation, it contains many factual errors (according to Barnard), some apocryphal stories (according to Neal) and "some insight and some fiction" (according to Madison). Contains good photographs of Willkie during his years in Elwood, at college and during World War I. 224 pages, 12 photographs.

As its title suggests, this book is a thorough documentation of Willkie's political career, and as such focuses on his life from about 1936 onward. This book is dull reading for anyone without a deep interest in the machinations of political parties. Written by a political science professor. 354 pages, 0 photographs.

Chiefly a campaign biography, although it also contains details of Willkie's family life in Elwood that cannot be found elsewhere.

An excellent first-person account of Willkie's 1940 campaign written by the New York lawyer who originated the idea of forming Willkie Clubs around the country to raise Willkie's profile and urge him to run for the presidency. (Although Willkie is mentioned throughout the book, only the first 35 pages focus exclusively on the Willkie campaign. The rest of the book concentrates on Root's recollections of his contact with other famous figures of the era.) 240 pages, 13 photographs.

A highly subjective and poetic tribute to the life and legacy of Wendell Willkie. This is an odd book, written by a poet, that is part free-verse poetry, part prose and part biography, including transcribed excerpts of testimony Willkie gave to various U.S. Senate committees. 330 pages, 0 photographs.

Although this biography was written for the juvenile/young adult market, it is a fairly sophisticated treatment of Willkie's personal life and his political career. However, this book is based on little original research (large sections of it were clearly produced by reworking text from Ellsworth Barnard's biography) and as such contains few details that cannot be found elsewhere. 230 pages, 9 photographs.

A thin book packed full of lies, but worth a read if only to discover how passionately some members of the GOP disliked Willkie. It was produced as part of the "Stop Willkie" movement launched to deny Willkie the 1944 GOP nomination. Barnard calls it "an extensive compilation of the lies that were circulated about Willkie by his enemies ... with some added fabrications that I have encountered nowhere else." Neal calls it "a political hatchet job funded by Willkie's right-wing critics." 48 pages, 0 photographs.

As the title indicates, a collection of Willkie's speeches and other writings.

As the title indicates, a collection of Willkie's speeches and other writings, including the first six articles listed in the next section. Also includes the texts of Willkie's brief address to the 1940 convention and his formal acceptance speech delivered in Elwood, Indiana, on August 17, 1940. Contains an excellent, 37-page introduction by Stanley Walker (no relation).

*Reprinted in An American Program

Indiana Historical Society
The New Deal Network
Freedom House
Tennessee Valley Authority
Willkie Farr & Gallagher Law Firm
Lilly Library at Indiana University, Bloomington

This was the third feature film of the late Jack Smith, an avant garde filmmaker and underground artist who makes Andy Warhol look like Norman Rockwell. Smith originally titled this film The Kidnapping of Wendell Willkie by the Love Bandit, and said it was his reaction to the chaotic 1968 presidential campaign.

If "No President" is anything like Smith's other films, it's probably fairly abstract, disjointed and rife with overt homosexual themes. A review of the film states that "the climax of the work appears to be the 'auctioning' of the presidential candidate at the convention." Significant for the newsreel footage it contains of Willkie's 1940 campaign.

Twentieth Century-Fox producer Darryl F. Zanuck bought the screen rights to Willkie's One World and had Oscar-winning screenwriter Lamar Trotti produce the screenplay. Zanuck never made the film, however, publicly stating that Willkie's efforts to capture the 1944 GOP nomination would have made the film too controversial.

Another factor in Zanuck's decision not to finish the One World project may have been his disastrous experience with another film based on American politics, his 1944 film Wilson, which dramatized President Woodrow Wilson's efforts to establish the League of Nations. Wilson cost $5.2 million to make (a record at the time), and despite a lavish marketing campaign, the film bombed with audiences and eventually lost $2 million.

This 1948 film starring Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn was inspired by Willkie's run for the presidency. The film is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play that was frequently re-scripted during its theatrical run to reflect current political events. Although fictional, the film is based on the Willkie phenomenon, and casts Tracy as an idealistic industrialist (an airplane manufacturer) who is drafted to head the GOP ticket.
 

Scenes from State of the Union, Copyright © Liberty Films, Inc.

As in real life, the industrialist's idealistic convictions are compromised by corrupt party professionals and by the candidate himself, who changes from a reluctant candidate into a cutthroat politician who will say and do anything to be elected. And, as in all Frank Capra films, "State of the Union" has an energetic, happy ending -- in this case a climactic scene in which the Willkie character renounces all the political compromises he has made and vows to recommit himself to his original ideals. Available on videotape from MCA Home Video. (Internet Movie Database entry for "State of the Union.")

A short documentary containing mostly newsreel footage. The focus of the film is Willkie's significant role in the movement to establish the United Nations.
 

Audio	TOP

"Loyal Opposition"(radio address) -- November 11, 1940, New York, N.Y.   •   [ HEAR IT HERE! ]

"Make Democracy Strong"-- July 23, 1941  •   [ HEAR IT HERE! ]
  (Courtesy: The History Channel   •   Requires RealPlayer)

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Original content Copyright  ©  by Timothy D. Walker    Your  comments  are appreciated
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