The strange deaths of President Harding

For nearly half a century, Warren G. Harding, twenty-ninth president of the United States, has finished last in every poll ranking the presidents. After his death in 1923, a variety of attacks and unsubstantiated claims left the public with a negative impression of him. In The Strange Deaths of President Harding, Robert H. Ferrell, distinguished presidential historian, examines these contentions and proves them baseless. At the time of Harding's death there was talk of his similarity, personally if not politically, to Abraham Lincoln. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes described Harding as one of nature's noblemen, truehearted and generous. But soon after Harding's death, his reputation began to spiral downward. Rumors circulated of the president's death by poison, either by his own hand or by that of his wife; allegations of an illegitimate daughter were made; and questions were raised concerning the extent of Harding's knowledge of the Teapot Dome scandal and of irregularities in the Veterans' Bureau, as well as his tolerance of a corrupt attorney general who was an Ohio political fixer. Journalists and historians of the time added to his tarnished reputation by using source