Robert Caro

“People in those old times had convictions; we moderns only have opinions. And it needs more than a mere opinion to erect a Gothic cathedral.” Heinrich Heine

“People in those old times had convictions; we moderns only have opinions. And it needs more than a mere opinion to erect a Gothic cathedral.” Heinrich Heine

When I read this quote by Heinrich Heine, I couldn’t help but think of Robert Caro.

Robert Caro is an incredible writer. He writes very well. If Robert Caro remained a newspaper writer, he would have received many awards and recognitions within the field. But Caro realized he didn’t want to keep writing articles. He wanted to write a book.

He resigned his work and committed to write the biography of Robert Moses. When he started, he thought he would be done in a year. He was wrong. It took him 7 years. He had gotten a contract for the book at the beginning but as the years extended, the money was finished. Without money and any support, it was difficult to stay on the task. At some point, his wife sold their house to keep them going. It was tough. It was rough. It was hard work. Yet, he wouldn’t go back to being a newspaper writer.

At some point, his publisher stopped believing in the book anymore. He couldn’t see how a book on Robert Moses would sell.

You know what? Caro still believed in it. What Caro believed was not in his writing powers. No, he believed that everyone deserved to understand how political power works. He believed that everyone deserved to know about how Robert Moses accumulated so much power and how he used it.

This conviction was the ultimate obsession of Caro as he wrote. He carried the same conviction into his work on Lyndon Johnson.

This one was more crazy. To write this book, Robert Caro and his wife Ina sold their house and moved to the Texas Hill country side just so they can understand what kind of situation Lyndon Johnson grew up in. That move was pivotal, and you see its impact in the first few chapters of The Path To Power. As Caro wrote about Lyndon, he was already popular. Any sort of work he submits will sell. But this is where his conviction held strongly. He refused to do shoddy work. He refused to do a simpler work. Robert Caro is 87, yet he has refused to submit the last edition of the Lyndon volume until he has truly completed it. He wants to do the same quality of work he has done with all the others.

Man, this is conviction. It is not the money. It is not the acclaim. It is none of those. It is just a man who believes in great work. A man who believes books should do more than become “bestsellers”. He was writing for the ages.

And indeed, Robert Caro’s works will be here for the ages. He has sealed his place.

A man without conviction can never achieve this.