The 41st president was known in caricature as someone who mangled syntax. But in his hundreds of letters, he expressed a quiet and often poignant eloquence.
When the cameras were rolling, President George Bush was fond of saying that he was not the emotional type. But with a pen in his hand, he expansively let out his heartfelt and innermost feelings.
Mr. Bush favored the handwritten letter. He wrote them by the hundreds to family, friends, critics, colleagues and contemporaries. To read them is to take in a brief history of the second half of the 20th century — stories of war and peace, victory and defeat, musings on culture and sports, and expressions of deeply personal sentiments.
As a public figure, Mr. Bush was rarely given to the kind of introspection that his letters reveal. Rather than write a memoir, as several of his friends had urged, he published a compendium of his letters, “All the Best,” which became a New York Times best seller.
Here are some highlights from the book that help to tell his life story.
In an undated letter a few months later, while he training in North Carolina, he wrote:
He also wrote critically about the military’s approach to indoctrination:
Mr. Bush was also in throes of romance with his future wife, Barbara Pierce, and he wrote affectionately about her:
And he was ever the dutiful son:
Mr.
