By STEPHEN W. HOUGHTON II
That Man, a memoir of Franklin D. Roosevelt written by Robert H. Jackson, will not be released in the rest of the country until September, but area residents may purchase it at Chautauqua Institution and local book stores now.
Jackson started writing the book shortly before his death in 1954, completing an outline and the first eight chapters.
In the fall of 2000, John Q. Barrett, the Elizabeth S. Lenna Fellow at the Jackson Center in Jamestown and law professor at St. John's University, started working to bring the book into publishable form.
Barrett used Jackson's own writings to complete the chapters that the Supreme Court justice had not been able to complete before his death.
''I brought in other Jackson material and stitched it together,'' Barrett said. ''When there were two (Jackson) sources, then I blended them together. He would mention (in his notes) a document and I would find them.''
In addition to the material Jackson had intended to use, Barrett has included biographical sketches of Jackson's contemporaries drawn from his own writings so that readers who are unfamiliar with the period will be able to know about the people mentioned by Jackson.
Before beginning work of completing and editing Jackson's book, Barrett read about a dozen biographies of Roosevelt to immerse himself in the period.
''It has been a complex labor and one I have loved,'' Barrett said. ''This is a book-worthy topic. In a serendipitous way, it is very relevant now.''
He said Jackson gave a balanced view of Roosevelt and his presidency.
''For somebody who owes a ton of his career to Roosevelt, it has a balance partly due to Jackson's character but also because it was written relatively late. Most of the memoirs about Roosevelt were published in the '40s.
''Jackson says that Roosevelt did not have a consistent economic theory,'' Barrett said. ''But Roosevelt had a single minded concentration on international issues. He had an incredible understanding of geographical significance. What this book does for our generation is it gives you Roosevelt as a live person."
You have a real feeling of being in the office, in the study or on the boat
with Roosevelt.''
The forward to the book is by William E. Leuchtenburg, the leading historian of Roosevelt and the New Deal.
The book has received rave reviews from historians.
''That Man is a great find - the last memoir of Franklin D. Roosevelt by someone who worked with him and knew him well,'' according to Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., the well-respected historian and presidential adviser. ''Next to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Robert H. Jackson was the best writer on the Supreme Court in the 20th century, and his portrait of 'that man in the White House' is filled with astute insights and warm recollections. It is a book no fan of FDR can do without.''
Economist John Kenneth Galbraith calls the book ''indispensable.''
Lawyer and scholar Laurence H. Tribe wrote the book ''will intrigue and inform anyone interested in the history of America's involvement in World War II or in the American presidency and the West Wing under FDR in an era a half century old that turns out to bear a surprising resemblance to our own.''
That Man has been been chosen as a main selection for Book of the Month Club and History Book Club.
Barrett, who is Wednesday's 10:45 a.m. speaker in the Amphitheater at Chautauqua Institution, said he was proud to have been chosen to edit and finish Jackson's memoir.
''This has been a very special project for me,'' Barrett said. ''It was an honor to have been the person whose lap it fell into. I wanted it to be up to Jackson's standards. It has been a weighty responsibility to bring Jackson's last book to print.''
John E. Dolibois, former United States ambassador to Luxembourg, will speak at a Brown Bag Lunch at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday on the Chautauqua Scientific and Literary Circle Alumni Hall lawn. In 1945 Dolibois interrogated many of the former German government officials who later became defendants at Nuremberg.