Nixon: The Wizard Project

Elizabeth Drew is back in the news. A look back at the 40th-anniversary edition of her 1974 book, “Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixon’s Downfall.” This article was originally posted in 2014.

“Forty years after the greatest scandal of the American presidency, Elizabeth Drew’s account in Washington Journal remains fresh and riveting, instructive and evocative. Her afterword on Nixon’s post-Watergate life is equally compelling.” Tom Brokaw

“Originally published soon after Richard Nixon’s resignation, Elizabeth Drew’s Washington Journal is a landmark of political journalism. Keenly observed and hugely insightful, Washington Journal opens in 1973 and follows the deterioration of Nixon’s presidency as it happens.” Overlook Press

“I have a certain amount of empathy for the man,” Drew told Hollywood on the Potomac. He was trapped in his own personality and by that I mean he had grown up resentful. He was a kind of scrawny kid and not at all athletic but bookish and that was not the thing in Whittier, California, so he was a loner.”