Lyndon B. Johnson was moody, depressive, lecherous and lusty. He was crass and ill-mannered. He adored his wife, but he wasn't always nice to her.

This is a portrait of a classic 1950s wife who loved her husband and gave up all her individuality to further his career.

Among the sources used by Russell, a Texas political writer, were numerous interviews and secretly recorded tapes of the president's office and telephone. Her interviews with Lady Bird began five years ago, and ended three years later when Russell asked too many questions about the sexual affairs of Lady Bird's husband.

Lyndon "collected" women, felt entitled to their services, according to Russell. Lady Bird knew about them, from Alice Glass, a very public relationship that began in the 1930s and lasted decades, to Helen Gahagan Douglas, who served in the House, to a woman who claimed Johnson was the father of her child and to whom he paid support for many years.