The Tormented President: Calvin Coolidge, Death, and Clinical Depression

by Robert E. Gilbert

Although Calvin Coolidge is widely judged to have been a weak and even an incompetent president, this study concludes that he was a leader disabled by a crippling emotional breakdown. After an impressive early career, Coolidge assumed the presidency upon the death of Warren Harding. His promising political career suffered a major blow, however, with the death of his favorite child, 16-year-old Calvin Jr., in July 1924. Overwhelmed with grief, Coolidge showed distinct signs of clinical depression. Losing interest in politics, he served out his term as a broken man. This is the first account of Coolidge's life to compare his behavior before and after this tragedy, and the first to consider the importance of Coolidge's mental health in his presidential legacy.

Gilbert carefully documents the dramatic change in Coolidge's leadership style, as well as the changes in his personal behavior. In his early career, Coolidge worked hard, was progressive, and politically astute. When he became Vice President in 1921, he impressed the Washington establishment by being strong and activist. After Harding's death, Coolidge took control of his party, dazzled the press, distanced himself from the Harding scandals, and showed ability in domestic and foreign policy. His son's death would destroy all of this. Gilbert documents Coolidge's subsequent dysfunctional behavior, including sadistic tendencies, rudeness and cruelty to family and aides, and odd interactions with the White House staff.

Genres: Nonfiction

312 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2003

Reviews

[Christopher A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly a pleasant suprise. This was my 3rd book on President Coolidge and this one fleshed out the man much better than anything else I’ve read on him so far. I was very hesitant at the start when the author starts at the very beginning of Coolidge’s life and quickly works his way up to the death of little Calvin. Yet by the time I got to the tragic event I realized why the author started at Coolidge’s birth and it all tied together. The author makes extensive use of letters written by the President (mostly to his father) and really gives you an understanding of the relationships between Cal and his various family members. The author is definitely at his best dissecting the President and not when he gets sidetracked discussing foreign affairs or things not directly related to Coolidge. Strongly recommend for anyone with an interest in the 30th President.

[Don Incognito · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is only the second Calvin Coolidge biography I have read, but it was far more insightful. It concentrates on who Coolidge was as a human being rather than on his political career. In popular history, President Coolidge's personality during his presidency (1923-28) was dour and of few words; politically, he was unusually detached, passive and even disinterested in everything going on in the country and the world.
Author Robert Gilbert's thesis is an explanation for that. Calvin Jr., the younger of he president's two sons, died in 1924 after getting a blister, during a tennis match, that became infected. (This was the pre-antibiotics era.) The president and first lady were distraught, of course; but based on Calvin Sr.'s subsequent behavior, Gilbert believes the former never recovered from Calvin Jr.'s death; and specifically, that he was disabled by major depression (due to unresolved grief) for the rest of his presidency and beyond. This ruined his presidency and made him decline to run for reelection.
Besides the behavior he became most famous for--sleeping most of the time, which is a symptom of depression--and general passivity, the book states that he started displaying strange and unpleasant behaviors with everyone--Mrs. (Grace) Coolidge, his surviving son (John), his Secret Service men, the entire White House staff, etc. His physicians believed he was having (or approaching) a mental breakdown, and didn't understand that it was a crippling episode of depression.
I'd like to own this book, but it's hard to find (probably due only to limited printing) and expensive. (I got it on interlibrary loan.)