ALMOST a decade ago, at the zenith of his power and wealth, Conrad Black set out to write a biography of the most powerful and enduring of American presidents, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. At first glance, it seemed a strange encounter. Black championed legendarily right-wing politics; Roosevelt was . . . well, Roosevelt. And yet, Black fiercely admired and in some ways even identified with the man who once damned people like Black as “economic royalists.” Yet the book proved a surprising intellectual and commercial success, widely and rightly applauded as the best single-volume biography of America’s longest-serving president.
Since then, fortune has turned on Black. He has been investigated, indicted, and convicted. His companies have been stripped from him and massive penalties imposed. Through the ordeal, he has behaved with courage and dignity, supported by the steadfast love of his wife and his children.
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