The Rascal King The Life And Times Of James Michael Curley (1874-1958)

Twice-jailed scoundrel and the people's champion, builder of hospitals and schools and shameless grafter, compelling orator and master of political farce, James Michael Curley was the stuff of legend long before his life became fiction in Edwin O'Connor's classic novelThe Last Hurrah. As mayor of Boston, as congressman, as governor of Massachusetts, Curley rose from the Irish slums in a career extending from the Progressive Era of Teddy Roosevelt to the ascendancy of JFK. Beatty's spellbinding story of this remarkable manand of his city, his people, and his timesis biography at its best.

Jack Beatty is a senior editor of the Atlantic Monthly, a commentator for NPR, and the author of The World According to Peter Drucker. He lives in Boston.