Kingfish

Patrick Cullen's voice is vital and sure, energetic yet objective as he narrates the life of Huey P. Long. The stuff of legend, Long was a governor, a U.S. Senator, and absolute ruler of the state of Louisiana from 1928 until his assassination in 1935. Robert Penn Warren's ALL THE KING'S MEN was inspired by Long. White's biography clearly disapproves of Long's methods to gain and maintain power, but his anecdotal approach to his subject allows listeners to enjoy the brash, often foolish behavior of a tyrant who ruled a constituency that loved him. Cullen wisely does not try to mimic voices. He reads with intelligence, using White's impeccable research to create a lasting portrait of a flamboyant politician. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

February 13, 2006
The inspiration for Robert Penn Warren's demagogue in All the King's Men
, Huey Long was Louisiana's governor, then U.S. senator and controlled virtually every aspect of the state government from 1929 until he was shot to death in 1935 at age 42. Long used the same skills he had honed as a charming traveling salesman for a lard substitute to appeal directly to potential voters and bypass the powerful political bosses. He filled the ranks of government employees with his own supporters, shamelessly appointing his brother as a tax collector even though he had promised to abolish the post and use the money for a TB hospital. Long may have started out as a populist with the admirable goal of providing free textbooks to schoolchildren, but squandering resources and lining his own pockets, he created Louisiana's first income tax.. Supposedly pro-labor, Long put the kibosh on pensions, unemployment insurance and a minimum wage. Crude and vindictive, Long had his eye on the presidency, influenced an Arkansas U.S. senate race and may have been killed by a "trigger-happy" bodyguard aiming at an attacker and not by an assassin's gun. LSU professor White's (Roosevelt the Reformer
, etc.) latest is lively and well researched but isn't as groundbreaking as the biography by William Ivy Hair or as authoritative as Pulitzer-winner T. Harry Williams's. 16 pages of photos not seen by PW
.