The Path to Power -- What you didn't know about Lyndon B. Johnson. Kitty Clyde Ross, Alice Glass-Marsh, Where are They Now?

Robert A Caro is something else.

                At Princeton he wrote a senior thesis on Hemingway so long that the ‘Caro rule’ was implemented to prevent a paper that long from being turned in again.

                In the 21^st century he still writes all of his extraordinarily long books in long hand. Then he types them up. It’s actually not too different from the way I write this blog. Except, he doesn’t use a computer. He uses a typewriter. A Corona Electra two to be specific. Why? He says it slows him down and “forces him to think.”

                In 1975 Caro embarked on a grand quest. To write the definitive work on Lyndon Baines Johnson’s life. Over 3,000 words later he still hasn’t finished, but what he has written so far is a masterpiece.

                There are four volumes published in his series, A Path to Power is the first. I endeavor to read them all someday, but I doubt that that day will be very soon.

Figure 1: The Path to Power by Robert A. Caro

                In an interview with Peter Slen on C-SPAN he sheds light on what he believes is the key to Johnson’s character: his childhood. In Johnson’s case, his past shapes his future. He grew up in a desolate town. Johnson City, in the Texas hill country. They had no electricity until Johnson secured it for them with the Rural Electrification Act, and the Rural Electrification Administration. Caro argues that this hard life is what gave Johnson his incredible drive. His drive to reply to every letter sent to his office, and when every letter had been replied to, he would generate mail. Mailing influential people across the state of Texas, trying to gain their favor. Most other congressional offices like Johnson’s were swamped and behind on correspondence. His, in his eyes, didn’t have enough.

                The main takeaway from this book that I received is that Johnson wanted power, simply to have power. Growing up, he never was the strongest, most popular, or the fastest. He spent his entire life rectifying this. He didn’t have much in the way of political opinions. He always told people what they wanted to hear. He simply believed in what was popular. When he ran for Congress the first time, he was for the New Deal through and through, because that is what was popular at the time. After Roosevelt died however, he changed his tune. Even before Roosevelt’s death however, he hadn’t been the perfect liberal. He secretly allied himself with conservative businessmen starting in 1940, and while telling Roosevelt he was fully in support of Marty Maverick, the liberal mayor of San Antonio, orchestrated his defeat.

Figure 2: FDR (Right) and LBJ (Left) with James Allred, Governor of Texas in 1937.

                However, even when he achieved that power, “Lyndon did not forget his friends” – Kittie Clyde Ross. He came back to Texas frequently. He gave a graduation address at the high school as president. Something that interested me in this book was Lyndon’s relationships. His friends, subordinates, and his romantic interests. For example, Kittie Clyde Ross, who Lyndon was “in love” with. He courted her through high school, and they seemed an inseparable pair, at least, in Caro’s account. Then, his family fell from grace. His father dreamed too big and overextended himself on his land holdings. Kittie’s father forced her to break up with Lyndon, feeling that he would go nowhere. No doubt, Lyndon set out to prove him wrong. (Kittie went on to open a hardware store and funeral home, both of which went out of business. Then she went back to school, and ended up becoming the superintendent of schools in Johnson City.) However, as I was writing this post, I found something interesting, an interview with Kittie Clyde[1]. In it, she severely downplays the extent of her relationship with Lyndon, contradicting the account in Caro’s book. Perhaps, it’s due to a change in categorization of relationships; the true extent got lost in translation. It is still curious. Kittie’s father’s intervention is all but omitted. In the end, however, Lyndon did prove Kittie’s father wrong. When he was elected president he flew Kittie, her husband, and some other Johnson city friends out to Washington DC on Air Force One, to partake in the festivities.

                The second relationship that piqued my interest is Johnson’s with Alice Glass. Glass, the partner of Charles Marsh. Charles Marsh was one of Johnson’s biggest donors. Little did he know that Johnson was having an affair with his wife. Johnson had incredible focus, however, in the case of Alice Glass, he almost threw away everything he had worked for. At one point, he seriously considered divorcing Lady Bird and running away with Glass. For a freshman congressman in the mid-20^th century, this would have been political suicide. However, he almost did it. Of course, Lady Bird knew. Caro, when recounting his interview with Johnson’s wife said that she just offered up the information, saying, “Alice Glass was one of the most elegant women I ever knew…”[2] Caro says, he almost “fell out of his chair”. Nevertheless, Lyndon eventually chose power, a choice that he kept making throughout his life. It eventually worked out for him—he became the president of the United States. It’s interesting to think, though, how the world would be different if he chose Alice Glass. Eventually the affair came to an end. Alice Glass finally married Marsh, which she had avoided for many years. They stayed friends, but due to disagreements about the Vietnam War, their friendship, too, ended. She burned his letters because she no longer wanted to be associated with him.

                Obviously, there is a lot more to unpack from this book. One could write several essays breaking the ‘Caro rule’ following up on the rest of the book. However, these are the things that piqued my interest. There are other causes for further reading. Johnson’s troubles with the IRS, swept under the rug by FDR. His college years, how at first glance it seemed like he was popular, and well-liked. However, as Caro dug deeper he found that he wasn’t well liked, but was in charge of giving out the jobs that people needed to stay in school, which kept everyone beholden to him. After reading this book, I’ve concluded that no one is better at politics than Lyndon B. Johnson, at least not at this point in time. Johnson was an incredible man, with a superhuman work ethic. And a superhuman President requires a superhuman biographer. And that, my friends, is Caro.

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[1] Oral history transcript, Kittie Clyde Leonard, interview 1 (I), 7/27/1971, by David G. McComb, LBJ Presidential Library, accessed September 27, 2026, https://discoverlbj.org/item/oh-leonardk-19710727-1-78-65

[2] From the C-SPAN Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXOsm1I5G_4