This superb biography is a richly detailed, intimate, surprising portrait of Adlai E. Stevenson—the public figure and the private. A long personal relationship with Stevenson, plus ten years of extensive research and access to Stevenson's private papers, has given John Bartlow Martin a rare insight into his subject—into the many forces that shaped, influenced, and limited this most extraordinary man. Adlai Stevenson was as complex a personality as ever ran for national office in America—ambitious, reticent, naive, amusing, warm, charming, and calculating. Twice denied election to the presidency, he is nevertheless remembered as a towering figure in the life of the nation—as a distinguished Governor, as the leader who respected the intelligence of Americans, and later as America's most honored and undermined UN ambassador. He has entered American history as a powerful force for reason, grace, and dignity in public life. John Bartlow Martin charts in meticulous detail not only the outer journey but also the profound inner strengths and contradictions of Adlai Stevenson. He has provided, as well, a clear analysis of Stevenson's Midwestern roots, of his rise to national prominence, and of his manifold influence on American politics. The result is a study of the man and of the American political system in action in the twentieth century—regionally, nationally, internationally. Mr. Martin has made extensive use of Stevenson's personal political papers and of his private correspondence. He draws heavily on a wide range of interviews with those who knew the man—from his family and his friends to his closest associates in government, politics, and the law. His findings shed new light on a number of crucial episodes in Stevenson's life—including his much publicized and little understood divorce; his concealed, early political ambitions; and his relations with the men and women who played important roles in his private and professional life. ADLAI STEVENSON OF ILLINOIS covers Stevenson's life through his initial bid for the presidency in 1952. A second book, Adlai Stevenson and the World, will complete this classic of American political literature—unquestionably the most substantial portrait of a man who was statesman and spokesman for an American dream.