An author does not usually respond to a reviewer's comments about his or her book but, in this instance, I think it appropriate that I do so. First, I hasten to thank Hendrick Booraem for the very positive things he wrote on the Coolidge Foundation web page about my new book The Tormented President: Calvin Coolidge, Death and Clinical Depression (Praeger, 2003). For the book to be described as "well-written", "provocative", "interesting" and as presenting "impressive evidence" and a "thesis that demands attention" is very gratifying to me as the author.

However, Dr. Booraem makes a number of comments that I think would benefit from a reply. Let me quote him directly and then offer an answer to the various points he raises.

Booraem: "And on the matter of press conferences generally, the book praises Coolidge's forthright dialogue with the press and the popularity it created for him in the first year as president. It somehow does not mention that the conferences continued weekly to the end of his presidency and that Coolidge remained popular with reporters."

Response: The book indicates clearly that Coolidge's press conferences continued beyond young Calvin's death in July, 1924 and extended to the end of Coolidge's presidency. In fact, on pages 183, 185, 191, 192, 193, 194, 196, 197 and 198, I specifically analyzed Coolidge's press conference performance in the period before and in the period after Calvin, Jr.'s death. Surely these nine pages of analysis can be taken as an acknowledgement that press conferences continued after July, 1924. The point emphasized in the book is that the quality of Coolidge's answers at press conferences deteriorated noticeably after July, 1924. Earlier (before young Calvin's death), Coolidge's press conference remarks had often been crammed with facts and figures and showed a president who was informed and in charge. Later (after the boy's death), the president's press conference remarks revealed too often that he was ill-informed and indifferent, both in domestic and foreign policy.

On the matter of Coolidge's popularity with the press, surely some reporters liked Coolidge at the end of his term but others (some quoted explicitly in the book on pages 265-266), held him in considerable disrespect.

Booraem: "The really startling feature of Gilbert's thesis is that it describes a radical change in behavior by one of the most visible public figures of the 1920's - and that this supposed change escaped the notice of every contemporary, friendly or otherwise."

Response: In point of fact, I referred to (and quoted explicitly) at least five different "contemporary" observers who saw a dramatic change in Coolidge's behavior in the period after young Calvin died. First Lady Grace Coolidge indicated that the president "had lost his zest for living after Calvin Jr. died." John Coolidge, the president's surviving son, is quoted in the book as saying that "my father was never the same again after my brother died." White House Physician Joel Boone is quoted in the book as describing Coolidge's behavior after his son's death as "emotional derangement." Coolidge's private secretary, Ted Clark, is quoted as saying that the president was showing signs of "mental illness" in the post-1924 period. Chief White House Usher Ike Hoover is quoted as indicating that White House employees who came into contact with the president noticed that he was "highly disturbed" and that the physician in attendance was worried. He also commented on Coolidge's odd behavior at his 1925 inauguration, which I also quote in the book. Even Coolidge himself referred to the change that had occurred in his political life when he wrote in his autobiography, When he (Calvin Jr.) went, the power and glory of the presidency went with him." If he had seen no change, why would he have written these poignant words? I did state in the book - and do so again - that clinical depression was not well understood in the 1920's. However, the five individuals quoted above - who happened to be extremely close to Coolidge - recognized clearly that something was amiss in the latter years of Coolidge's presidency. The fact that they did not ascribe these changes to clinical depression but rather to "emotional derangement," "mental illness," being "highly disturbed," losing "zest for living," and never "being the same again" is not surprising. Even today, they might well use the same terms to describe a deep-seated and enduring depressive episode. But their extraordinarily revealing comments should not be ignored or missed by any reader intent on uncovering testimony about behavior changes.

Booraem: "...one or two assertions in Gilbert's final chapter...also strain my comfort level. One is the counterintuitive assertion that Coolidge had a tendency "to boast, brag and embellish... All the evidence given in the book to support this contention comes from statements made to his father, John Coolidge."

Response: As support for my remark that Coolidge had a tendency to "boast, brag and embellish," I certainly did not refer only to statements made to his father, John Coolidge. In point of fact, I also included statements made to his stepmother, Carrie Coolidge, and also many statements directed toward his surving son, John. To give just one example here, I quote (p. 54 of the book) a Coolidge letter to his son in which he boasts that "Many men are almost President. But only 29 have been chosen." He then goes on to tell his son that he hoped he would not be an "almost man" (in contrast to his father who was one of the 29)!

Booraem: "If Coolidge was convinced that God's anger at his attitude demanded the infliction of this sacrifice (Calvin Jr.,s death), does it make sense to suppose that he would have continued his behavior without change even after his son's death?"

Response: This is a good question. It is one I wrestled with long and hard before the book went to press. I finally consulted with a number of psychiatrists/psychologists in an effort to benefit from their thinking on the subject. Two possible explanations emerged from these discussions. First, Coolidge may well have concluded that he had already paid the ultimate price (the death of his favorite child) for his "transgressions" and therefore had no greater punishment to fear. Second, when individuals suffer a devastating loss, they often become angry at God and seek ways to "answer back." For Coolidge to have continued in the behavior pattern that he believed had provoked God's anger in the first instance may well have been a manifestation of his anger at God and something of a desire to lash out at Him. After reading Dr. Booraem's comment on this point, however, I regret that I did not include these possible explanations in the book. I should have.

Finally, contrary to Dr. Booraem's comment in his review, I do not write anywhere in the book that "if it had not been for his depressive episode, Coolidge might have been nearly as progressive and proactive as Woodrow Wilson or F.D.R." Also, when Dr. Booraem writes that I would have "undoubtedly" characterized Coolidge's innovative way of cultivating the press, if it had occurred after young Calvin's death, as "evidence of presidential 'disengagement' and flight from executive responsibility," he is engaging in a flight of fancy or clairvoyance - something that book reviewers might be well advised to avoid.

Again, I am grateful to Dr. Booraem for the positive things he writes in his review of my book and for pointing out that I should indeed have included possible explanations for Coolidge's unchanging personal behavior patterns (e.g. enjoyment of the trappings of office) in addition to the explanations that were offered for the dramatic changes that occurred in his political behavior patterns (e.g. withdrawal from the duties of office) after his son died. But I also am convinced that the "evidence" found in the book itself provides a ready answer to several of his other comments.