I am shocked by the news just now that Richard Ben Cramer has died at age 62, of lung cancer.His book What It Takes is the first book I tell anyone interested in American politics, American culture, and American journalism to read. It is timeless but also timely, since its cast of characters — those competing for the presidency in 1988 — includes our current vice president, Joe Biden.(The second book is Garry Wills’s Nixon Agonistes; Wills, now 78, happily is still in action.)I never met him but felt as if I knew him from his writing. Sympathies to his family. His work will last.

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Richard Ben Cramer




