Procession

by John Gunther

Portraits of forty world figures of modern times from his writings of the past thirty years or so.

Genres: Biography, History

514 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

John Gunther was one of the best known and most admired journalists of his day, and his series of "Inside" books, starting with Inside Europe in 1936, were immensely popular profiles of the major world powers. One critic noted that it was Gunther's special gift to "unite the best qualities of the newspaperman and the historian." It was a gift that readers responded to enthusiastically. The "Inside" books sold 3,500,000 copies over a period of thirty years.

While publicly a bon vivant and modest celebrity, Gunther in his private life suffered disappointment and tragedy. He and Frances Fineman, whom he married in 1927, had a daughter who died four months after her birth in 1929. The Gunthers divorced in 1944. In 1947, their beloved son Johnny died after a long, heartbreaking fight with brain cancer. Gunther wrote his classic memoir Death Be Not Proud, published in 1949, to commemorate the courage and spirit of this extraordinary boy. Gunther remarried in 1948, and he and his second wife, Jane Perry Vandercook, adopted a son.

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though assembled in the mid-sixties, this series of brief biographies begins with extracts from some of the 'Inside' books Gunther first wrote in the thirties. Thus it begins with Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, all before the war, and continues on the likes of De Valera, Trotsky, Tito, Gandhi, Nehru, Churchill and Roosevelt as well as with lesser figures such as Tubman of Liberia. Most of them Gunther interviewed himself, sometimes repeatedly.

In reading this I was struck by how familiar the period 1930-1965 has become to me because of other books. Interestingly, this is the period of my father's life as 'young' man, not my own, though, of course, I had some personal awareness of global politics beginning in the early sixties and some expertise beginning with the Kennedy administration.

Also interesting is a mention Gunther makes of the two men who had impressed him the most. One was Nehru, the other, surprising me, was Adlai Stevenson, a figure not mentioned in this book.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you get to be big enough in journalism the greats of the world seek you out for conversation, not vice versa. This was the enviable position of John Gunther, literary heir to Plutarch in sketching political figures of world import, with the advantage of having interviewed them. PROCESSION begins with the big three Gunther, alas, never got to talk to, Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. He was among the first to note, from afar but accurately, that Hitler was an illiterate Demosthenes, a demagogue dangerous to the world precisely because he was all conviction and no scruples. On a grace note Gunther tells us that in planning the invasion of Britain in 1940 "I was on a select list of people whom the Nazis had slated for execution after conquest". That's the mark of a first-class journalist. Gunther speaks with Churchill during his time as First Lord of the Admiralty and Winston confidently predicts the Allies will win this war, for "this is a war of the peoples, not power relations like the first one"; ironic, coming from Churchill. MacArthur and Eisenhower are here, the first a mad militarist willing to blow up Asia for the sake of winning in Korea, "such is the legacy Douglas MacArthur would have given the world", Gunther sighs, and the second an amiable but befuddled keeper of the peace in Europe. Gunther's travels to Asia and Africa earn him interviews with Nehru, "half-Indian, half European, at home nowhere" and Haile Selassie, whom Gunther takes at his word is doing his best to modernize Ethiopia. The American scene grants us glimpses of Franklin Roosevelt, a charmer but also a schemer, strangely, Gunther spoke with Eleanor but did not profile her, and the soon-to-be great Earl Warren, a Republican "not of outstanding intellect" but a sturdy liberal. These rough sketches of history in the making are not to be missed.