Third Time's the Charm?

Actually, the others—the first two volumes in Robert Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson—1982's The Path to Power and 1990's Means of Ascent —were charmed, as well: each received the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction and sent leading book reviewers scurrying for new superlatives. Now comes Master of the Senate, published on April 30 to still more hosannas ("uniquely mesmerizing," said PW's boxed and starred review), which hit our list last week in seventh place and today climbs, appropriately, to #3. Knopf's just-announced third printing brings the total to 220,000. Not surprisingly, the publisher's promotional coverage (we received two-plus single-spaced pages) reads like a media Who's Who—on TV: Today, Charlie Rose, Wolf Blitzer Reports, the History Channel and more; in print: the Washington Post, Time, the New York Times, People, Business Week, etc.; on radio: NPR's Talk of the Nation, Weekend Edition and The Tavis Smiley Show, Chicago Street Talk, Houston's Mike Richards Show, Minneapolis's Midday Live, etc. In addition, the New Yorker will run the first serialization, and Caro's in the midst of a 16-city tour.

With reporting by Dick Donahue