Book Review: "The President Is A Sick Man"

OK, until I read this book, this is what I knew about Grover Cleveland:

He was the only man to serve two non-consecutive terms as President.

He was married in the White House to a MUCH younger woman.

He was rumored to have fathered an illegitimate child prior to becoming President.

That's it; that's the list.

However, on July 1, 1893, four months into his second administration, he boarded a private yacht in Long Island Sound, and, effectively "disappeared" for five days. While on that yacht, a 19th century "dream team" of surgeons performed an operation and removed a cancerous tumor from the mouth of the President of the United States. Two months later a Philadelphia newspaper reporter named E.J. Edwards came up with the scoop of the century and reported that this surgery took place. The administration denied that this was so, and Edwards was pretty much vilified by the rest of the press. And these events occurred while the nation was in an economic depression while Cleveland was battling Congress to abandon the Silver Standard and return to the Gold Standard (remember that from your US History classes?).

Author Matthew Algeo writes a fascinating tale about this entire episode. In a day of 24 Hour News, where every Presidential move is reported upon endlessly and in never ending detail, it is hard to imagine that such an event could take place in such secrecy.

If you are a Presidency and/or a history buff, or just like a good story, you will find this book most interesting.

Oh, and as for the young wife....Frances Folsom was 21 years old when she married 49 year old President Grover Cleveland. She remains to this day the youngest First Lady in history, and the only First Lady to give birth while in the White House, which she did three times. She was also the first Presidential widow to remarry, and was the only one to do so until Jacqueline Kennedy married Aristotle Onassis.

Fun facts for today!