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William Howard Taft: Big as an Infant

   
 
wagon accident At age 9, he suffered a slight skull fracture and a bad cut on the head when the horses drawing the family carriage ran off. [16a] For the rest of his life he carried "a deep depression" in his skull [23a]. There was speculation this injury damaged Taft's pituitary gland and caused his obesity [10a], but this is unlikely because: (1) Taft was big from birth [16b] and (2) throughout his life, Taft's weight generally paralleled his unhappiness [16c] [2a] [8a].

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 When Taft was 7 weeks old, his mother wrote [16b]:
He is very large of his age and grows fat every day.... He has such a large waist, that he cannot wear any of the dresses that are made with belts.
     Resources[Top]
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  1. Abbott, Lawrence F. (ed.). The Letters of Archie Butt: Personal Aide to President Roosevelt. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1924.

  2. Anderson, Judith Icke. William Howard Taft: An Intimate History. New York: W. W. Norton, 1981. ISBN 0-393-01462-2 @ Amazon   [a] p. ???

  3. Arnebeck, Bob. White House Workout: William Howard Taft's good fight against the 54-inch waistline. Washington Post Magazine. September 15, 1985: 17, 19.

  4. Barker, Charles E. With President Taft in the White House. Chicago: A. Kroch and Son, 1947.

  5. Boller, Paul F. Jr. Presidential Anecdotes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981. ISBN 0-19-502915-1 @ Amazon

  6. Bromley, Michael L. William Howard Taft and the First Motoring Presidency. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland, 2003. ISBN 0-7864-1475-8 @ Amazon

  7. Bromley, Michael. Personal communication. Email to Dr. Zebra Sept. 15, 2005.
        Bromley wrote: "Taft never drove. He always had a driver. His driver in Washington in the Twenties was named Tom Ford." It is not clear, however, when Ford was hired or if he was behind the wheel when this incident occurred.

  8. Bumgarner, John R. The Health of the Presidents: The 41 United States Presidents Through 1993 from a Physician's Point of View. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland & Company, 1994. ISBN 0-89950-956-8 @ Amazon   [a] p. 172
        Devotes one chapter to each President, through Clinton. Written for the layperson, well-referenced, with areas of speculation clearly identified, Dr. Zebra depends heavily on this book. Dr. Bumgarner survived the Bataan Death March and has written an unforgettable book casting a physician's eye on that experience.

  9. Butt, Archibald W. Taft and Roosevelt: The Intimate Letters of Archie Butt, Military Aide. Garden City, NY: Doubleday (1930). Volume 1: pages 1-432. Volume 2: pages 433-862.   [a] p. 326
        Butt, an Army officer, was military aide first to President Theodore Roosevelt and then to President William Taft. On April 14, 1912, Butt was at sea aboard the Titanic returning from a European vacation that Taft had insisted he take. President Taft later said: "When I heard that part of the ship's company had gone down, I gave up hope for the rescue of Major Butt, unless by accident. I knew that he would certainly remain on the ship's deck until every duty had been performed and every sacrifice made that properly fell on one charged, as he would feel himself charged, with responsibility for the rescue of others." Taft was correct. Butt did not survive the sinking.

  10. Coletta, Paolo E. The Presidency of William Howard Taft. Lawrence, KS: The University Press of Kansas, 1973. ISBN 7006-0096-5 @ Amazon   [a] p. 9

  11. Dole, RJ. Great Presidential Wit. NY: Scribner, 2001. ISBN 0-7432-0392-5 @ Amazon

  12. Hicks, F. C. William Howard Taft, Yale Professor of Law & New Haven Citizen. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1945.

  13. Manners, William. TR and Will: A Friendship that Split the Republican Party. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1969.

  14. Marx, Rudolph. The Health of the Presidents. New York: GP Putnam's Sons, 1960.

  15. Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (ed). Burke's Presidential Families of the United States of American. 2nd ed. London: Burke's Peerage Limited, 1981. ISBN 0-85011-033-5 @ Amazon
        Enumerates the ancestors and descendants of American presidents up through Ronald Reagan.

  16. Pringle, Henry F. The Life and Times of William Howard Taft: A Biography. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1939.   [a] p. 24 [b] p. 3 [c] p. 1072

  17. Braisted, William C.; Bell, William Hemphill; Rixey, Presley Marion. The Life Story of Presley Marion Rixey: Surgeon General, U. S. Navy 1902-1910: Biography and Autobiography. Strasburg, VA: Shenandoah Publishing House, Inc., 1930.
        Rixey was the White House physician for both William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.

  18. Ross, Ishbel. An American Family: The Tafts - 1678 to 1964. Cleveland, OH: World Publishing Co., 1964.

  19. Sargent, Shirley. Yosemite's Famous Guests. Yosemite, CA: Flying Spur Press, 1970.

  20. Smith, Ira R. T.; Morris, Joe Alex. "Dear Mr. President:" The Story of Fifty Years in the White House Mail Room. New York: Julian Messner, 1949.
        Ira Smith was a peppery fellow who ran the White House mail room from 1897 to 1948. He started working during the administration of William McKinley and was the only mail room staffer until the volume of mail made it necessary to hire help during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt.

  21. Sotos, JG. Taft and Pickwick: sleep apnea in the White House. Chest. 2003;124:1133-1142.

  22. Sullivan, Mark. Our Times: 1900-1925 (Six volumes). New York: Charles Scribners' Sons, 1926-1940.

  23. Taft, Horace Dutton. Memories and Opinions. New York: Macmillan, 1947.   [a] p. 7

  24. Taft, Mrs. William Howard (Helen Herron Taft). Recollections of Full Years. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1914.

  25. Taft, William Howard. Papers of William Howard Taft. On file in the Library of Congress and selected other research libraries.

  26. Watson, James. As I Knew Them: Memoirs of James E. Watson. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1936.

  27. The William Taft web page at the White House.

  28.  (1 match when checked in November 2003)
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