Books: A President Remembered

IN THE DAYS OF MCKINLEY (686 pp.)—Margaret Leech—Harper ($7.50).

Had the man from Mars said, "Take me to your leader" in the days of President McKinley, many an American might have answered, "What leader?" Few U.S. Presidents have exerted so colorless a leadership from the White House, and few have faded so quickly from the nation's memory. In a new biography, Pulitzer Prizewinner Margaret (Reveille in Washington) Leech thoughtfully recalls a President who was widely loved, sincerely devoted to his country and to the Christian virtues, but who remained even in historic moments (as Author Leech puts it) "the captive...