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Praise for Ultimate Insiders
The president’s “bully pulpit” at the White House is commanded as much by the visual as the ver-
bal. This new book significantly captures this truth in a wonderful collection of images that have
shaped our nation’s history, along with the personal stories of the artists who “did the snaps.” A
must for every student of White House history.
Mike McCurry, White House Press Secretary to President Bill Clinton

Ken Walsh has become one of America’s great chroniclers of all things presidential. Ultimate Insiders
is a marvelous look at the role White House photographers play in setting the tone and tenor of our
times. Highly recommended!
Douglas Brinkley, Rice University

Remember the picture of Kennedy sheepishly walking away from Marilyn Monroe. Or of Reagan
meeting Gorbachev. Or iconic shots of Obama’s anguish in defeat and Trump’s frustration with
the swamp. The only people in the world close enough to touch the people in these photos are the
presidential photographers, but we only see the back of their heads. In this book the consummate
historian of the modern presidency, Ken Walsh, has given them all faces. Walsh’s book describes and
tells the stories of the characters, charmers, egos, and true believers who photograph the lives of our
presidents. It’s a great read.
Marlin Fitzwater, White House Press Secretary to Presidents
Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush

Ken Walsh, veteran White House reporter, gives us a fascinating and well-written account of the
presidential photographers who have chronicled our presidents. The book looks at the untold story
of who these people have been and, in doing so, explicates the power and politics of images that
have shaped every presidency in the modern era.
Julian E. Zelizer, Princeton University

More often than not, a single photograph can tell a story with more detail than a news article ever
could. Ken Walsh expertly conveys this message, taking readers behind the curtain of the White
House and into the most intimate moments of a president’s time in office. He shows readers the
important role of White House photographers and how our history is lost without them.
Dana Perino, White House Press Secretary to President George W. Bush

Ken Walsh captures the extraordinary “snapshots” that provide context and texture to a full view of
our presidents. Well done!
Kenneth M. Duberstein, White House Chief
of Staff to President Ronald Reagan

In Ultimate Insiders, Ken Walsh tells the story of one of the most exclusive clubs in photojournal-
ism: personal photographers to the President of the United States. Behind-the-scenes stories and
intimate portraits of the brilliant men and women in this club are preserved forever here . . . Ken
Walsh’s book is an affecting portrait of this work and the special people who have practiced it.
Neil Leifer, Time, Inc.; Photographer and documentary filmmaker
 ULTIMATE INSIDERS

Virtually unknown to the public or historians, White House photog-

raphers have developed amazing access to the presidents of the United
States over the past half-century. In this book, long-time White House
correspondent Kenneth T. Walsh tells their stories, emphasizing obser-
vations about the presidents the photographers got to know so well
along with other key figures close to those presidents—including the
first ladies, members of Congress, and important world leaders.
This book shows how official White House photographers have mor-
phed into ultimate insiders within the American presidency, allowed
to observe and take pictures of nearly everything Chief Executives do
related to their job. The “photogs” have often become close friends with
the presidents they have served. Using these bonds of trust and their
own powers of observation, they created fundamental impressions and
public images of the presidents through the art of photography. Acting
not only as image makers but as visual historians, they have built pictorial
chronicles of the presidency—intimate narratives of America’s leaders in
public and private, showing how they dealt with everyday life as well as
moments of great crisis and opportunity. From children playing in the
Oval Office to decisions to send troops into harm’s way, images created
by White House photographers can make or break a presidential admin-
istration as well as define an era.

Kenneth T. Walsh has been White House correspondent for U.S.

News & World Report since 1986. He writes a weekly column, “The
Presidency,” and a daily blog, “Ken Walsh’s Washington,” both for U.S.
News & World Report. He is one of the longest-serving White House
correspondents in history and is the former president of The White
House Correspondents’ Association.
ALSO BY KENNETH T. WALSH

Feeding the Beast: The White House Versus the Press

Ronald Reagan: Biography
Air Force One: A History of the Presidents and Their Planes
From Mount Vernon to Crawford: A History of the Presidents and Their Retreats
Family of Freedom: Presidents and African Americans in the White House
Prisoners of the White House: The Isolation of America’s Presidents and the Crisis
of Leadership
Celebrity in Chief: A History of the Presidents and the Culture of Stardom
ULTIMATE INSIDERS
White House Photographers
and How They Shape History

8
By Kenneth T. Walsh
Published 2018
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Taylor & Francis
The right of Kenneth T. Walsh to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-73760-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-10627-4 (ebk)
Typeset in ITC Galliard
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Barclay and Gloria
 8
Contents

About the Author xi

Note to Readers xiii
Acknowledgementsxv

Introduction Insider Views and Insider Insights 1

Chapter One How Lincoln and FDR Set the Pace, and
How Their Successors Wrote Their Own Rules 17
Chapter Two Behind the Scenes with John F. Kennedy,
Cecil Stoughton, and the Glamor Lensmen 33
Chapter Three Behind the Scenes with Lyndon B. Johnson
and Yoichi Okamoto 61
Chapter Four Behind the Scenes with Richard Nixon and
Ollie Atkins 73
Chapter Five Behind the Scenes with Gerald Ford and
David Kennerly 93
Chapter Six Behind the Scenes with Jimmy Carter and a
Missing Chief Photographer 103

ix
x Contents

Chapter Seven Behind the Scenes with Ronald Reagan,

Michael Evans, and Pete Souza 107
Chapter Eight Behind the Scenes with George H.W. Bush
and David Valdez 123
Chapter Nine Behind the Scenes with Bill Clinton,
Bob McNeely, and Sharon Farmer 135
Chapter Ten Behind the Scenes with
George W. Bush and Eric Draper 151
Chapter Eleven Behind the Scenes with
Barack Obama and Pete Souza 163
Chapter Twelve Behind the Scenes with Donald Trump
and His Commanding Style of
Image Making 181
Chapter Thirteen The Vital Role of the “Photodogs” 189
Chapter Fourteen Master Photojournalists Who Made
Their Mark on History 211
Chapter Fifteen The Ultimate Insiders’ Evolving Tools
of the Trade 229

Epilogue: The Future of White House Photography 235

Selected Readings 241
Index247
 8
About the Author

Kenneth T. Walsh has been White House correspondent for U.S.

News & World Report since 1986. He writes a weekly column, “The
Presidency,” for usnews.com and is the author of a daily blog, “Ken
Walsh’s Washington,” also for U.S. News & World Report. He is one of
the longest-serving White House correspondents in history. This is his
eighth book. Walsh is the former president of the White House Corre-
spondents’ Association, and he has won the most prestigious awards for
White House coverage. Walsh also has served as an adjunct professorial
lecturer at American University’s School of Communication in Washing-
ton, D.C. He appears frequently on television and radio, and gives many
speeches around the country and abroad. He and his wife Barclay live in
Bethesda, Maryland, and Shady Side, Maryland. They have two children,
Jean and Chris.

xi
 8
Note to Readers

Many of the photographs in this book have been rarely if ever seen by
the public. One of my goals was to offer fresh visual insights into the
presidents as real human beings, not just more glimpses of the cardboard
cutouts so often presented to the public by their media handlers. I have
found that the best White House staff photographers and the best pho-
tojournalists often captured the essence of the presidents, but most of
their pictures are stored unseen by the public in the presidential libraries
and the National Archives, or kept in their personal collections. I looked
at thousands of photographs in researching this book, and it is the fresh
images that I wanted to show above all.
Readers are certainly more familiar with some pictures of the presi-
dents than others, such as the images of Lyndon B. Johnson’s famous
swearing-in ceremony aboard Air Force One after John F. Kennedy was
assassinated on November 22, 1963. This photo sent a message to the
world that the U.S. Constitution endured and that Johnson would con-
tinue Kennedy’s legacy. I have included it because of its historic nature.
But most of the photographs in this book will be unfamiliar to the
reader. My hope is that they reveal something new and different about
the presidents and their times.

Kenneth T. Walsh
Bethesda, Maryland

xiii
 8
Acknowledgements

First of all, my profound thanks go to Barclay Walsh, my wife and life

partner. Barclay researched key parts of this book and was a strong advo-
cate of the project from the beginning. Her wise counsel, editing skills,
and creativity and her help in finding the photographs used in this vol-
ume were invaluable.
My gratitude goes to the many people who provided insights and
shaped my thinking about this project, including White House staff pho-
tographers Ralph Alswang, Susan Biddle, Eric Draper, Sharon Farmer,
David Kennerly, Bob McNeely, and David Valdez, all of whom I inter-
viewed for Ultimate Insiders. Thanks also to Charlie Archambault, Doug
Brinkley, Don Carleton, Bob Dallek, Frank Donatelli, Ken Duberstein,
Al Felzenberg, Marlin Fitzwater, Geoff Garin, Jim Gerstenzang, Stan
Greenberg, Frank Luntz, Mike McCurry, Sean Spicer, and Doug Wead.
A special note of thanks goes to Doug Mills, the excellent White
House photographer for the New York Times. Over the years, he has
been a strong advocate for the news photographers in dealing with the
White House and he provided many insights to me regarding the rela-
tionship between the “stills” and the West Wing.
The staff and resources at the presidential libraries were indispensable,
as was the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas
in Austin, which has become an important repository for presidential
photography. And there have been many insightful articles, interviews,

xv
xvi Acknowledgements

and books that enlightened me while writing Ultimate Insiders. They are
listed in the “Selected Reading.”
I wish I’d had the opportunity to talk to some of the other past icons
of White House photography such as the late Yoichi Okamoto, Jacques
Lowe, George Tames, Stanley Tretick, and Mike Evans. But their passing
has not deprived us of their personal observations as recorded in inter-
views, oral histories, panel discussions and in some cases books they have
written. And of course, their pictures live on.
I also found that my 31 years of covering the White House for U.S.
News & World Report gave me many insights into the life and work of
the White House photographers, both those who serve the president on
his staff and those who are photojournalists independent of the White
House. They are a very special cadre of talented people, and I’m priv-
ileged to have known them. I’d like to acknowledge in particular the
professional excellence and personal friendship provided by the photog-
raphers at U.S. News & World Report over the years, such as Charlie
Archambault, Chick Harrity, and Jim LoScalzo.
Thanks to Jennifer Knerr, my editor at Routledge, who provided con-
stant encouragement and guidance along the way. She is simply the best.

Kenneth T. Walsh
Bethesda, Maryland
 8
Introduction
Insider Views and I nsider I nsights

For more than half a century, presidential photographers have been vital
fixtures inside the White House. Virtually unknown to the public, they
developed amazing access to America’s presidents, using it to carefully
observe the nation’s leaders and get to know them better than virtually
anyone else outside of the first families. Just as important, they played a
key role in shaping the images of the presidents and visually chronicling
their lives. Veteran photojournalist Cornell Capra said being a presiden-
tial photographer is “like sitting on God’s left arm.”1 He was right.
This book tells the photographers’ extraordinary story. It is fascinat-
ing in its own right, and also provides portraits of America’s presidents
as seen through the eyes and the lenses of these ultimate insiders at the
White House. In fundamental ways, official photographers have mor-
phed into presidential anthropologists who are allowed to watch, listen,
and document visually nearly everything that chief executives do related
to their jobs. Sometimes the photographers are privy to the most pro-
found personal moments, the emotional highs and lows, and the key
decisions involving war and peace. Most of the official photographers’
pictures—millions of them—were never released to the public and are
stored in the presidential libraries. Many are now being published in this
book as part of a very special insiders’ history of the presidency.

1
2  I ntroduction

“The White House photographer, more than almost anyone else on

the president’s staff, has virtually unfettered access to the Oval Office
and to the president’s every activity, from his travels abroad to his most
sensitive meetings in the Situation Room,” said Howard Baker, Ronald
Reagan’s former White House chief of staff (and an amateur photog-
rapher who would frequently tote his own camera and snap pictures at
presidential events). “The presidential photographic archives, then, are a
far more thorough record of presidential activity than any other source.”2
This book brings together the story of the White House staff photog-
raphers for the first time. It offers a new and insightful look at the presi-
dents and the history of the past half century starting in 1961 when John
F. Kennedy created the position of official presidential photographer by
assigning military cameraman Cecil Stoughton to the job. Kennedy also
worked with and hired some of the best private photographers of his era
to supplement Stoughton’s work.
The president’s official photographer has two jobs: First, to record
the president at official events such as the seemingly endless series of
greetings, receptions, and meetings with foreign leaders, members of
Congress and other officials and guests at the White House and wherever
the chief executive might be. This might not be exciting or elevating,
but effective presidents and their staffs know it is essential to a successful
White House operation. Such photos are often treasured by the people
who receive them (free of charge), and they are placed in prominent
positions in countless homes and offices around the country. (As a White
House correspondent for more than 30 years, I have many of these pho-
tos framed and on the walls of my study at home.)
Second, to document for history the presidency as an institution and
presidents as individuals. This is the task that White House photogra-
phers value the most and what animates them day after day. As eyewit-
nesses to history—captured with their ever-present cameras—they are
the consummate storytellers about life and work at the White House.3
Even Richard Nixon, no friend of photographers for most of his pres-
idency and reluctant to give them much access, still recognized that his
own chief photographer Ollie Atkins had a distinct role to play. Nixon
has noted that Atkins’ “eye and his camera lens penetrated the superficial
‘news value’ of an event, and captured its deeper human dimension. That
is why I asked Ollie to head the White House photographic office. As
a friend, he has been with us in the good times and the bad times. As a
craftsman, he did more than just take pictures of events and individuals;
 Insider Views and Insider Insights 3

in effect, he wrote with photographs the intimate, inside story of the

Presidential years.”4 This is what every presidential photographer aims
to do.
Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary for President George
W. Bush, observed: “There’s a political element to make the President
look strong, decisive, in charge. Unless it’s for humor, you’ll never see
any White House release pictures that make the President look bad.”5
Certainly the White House won’t intentionally release negative pic-
tures, but it does happen. Bush endured harsh criticism when the White
House released a photo of him looking out the window of Air Force One,
the presidential jet, at the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina along the
Gulf Coast in 2005 (after Fleischer had left the administration). White
House officials thought the image would be positive, showing Bush dis-
playing empathy for the victims. But the photo had the opposite effect,
impressing on people that Bush viewed the human tragedy and weak
government response from the sky and didn’t get an on-the-ground view
until later. He seemed out of touch, too distant from the suffering below.
But Fleischer’s overall point about what can amount to visual pub-
lic relations is correct. Don Carleton, director of the Briscoe Center for
American History at the University of Texas in Austin, says the pho-
tographers essentially are PR people. “These are official photographers
and they’re serving at the discretion of the president,” Carleton told me.
“Their whole raison d’etre is making the president look good. The ones
who are honest will admit that’s what they do.” Nevertheless, Carleton
recognizes the historical importance of their work. And the center is accu-
mulating the archives of both White House staff photographers and news
photographers—collectively known as “shooters”—over many years.6
Even if a presidential photographer is mostly a PR man, the work
still has enormous value. “It shows us how the president wants to look;
it shows the administration and the culture and how they ran the presi-
dency,” Carleton said.7
During my three decades covering the White House for U.S. News &
World Report, I developed enormous respect for the White House staff
photographers and, although their access has been much less, for the
news photographers. One thing I’ve learned is that the best photog-
raphers are by nature keen observers. They have the president in their
viewfinders and framed by their cameras as much as they can: That’s their
job. Their close-up lenses reveal the presidents’ moods, whether they are
out of sorts or feeling upbeat and whether they are weary or sick. They
4  I ntroduction

are experts on the individuals who have occupied the nation’s highest
office.
“The men [and, more recently, women] in the photographic press corps
have strong feelings about the President they cover,” wrote Ollie Atkins, a
news photographer for Curtis Publishing Co., in a 1967 magazine article
before he started working for President Nixon in 1969. “Best loved of
all the Presidents in my lifetime was President Harry Truman. President
Truman genuinely liked news photographers. He was most obliging in
obeying their commands and even ordered balky visitors to cooperate in
setting up the scene when they ignored the photographers’ requests.”
“Least liked of the Presidents,” Atkins wrote contemporaneously, “is
Lyndon Baines Johnson. Like most other people, the photographers do
not really understand President Johnson. They rebel at his many restric-
tions which prevent photographs from being taken at all, or made only
from the [left] side of his face, or not clicked from behind him, or not
made while he is eating, or seldom allowed when he is speaking—and
nearly always improperly lighted.”
“President John F. Kennedy was vain about his image, almost as
much as Mr. Johnson is, and he allowed the great advantage of exclusive
photographic coverage to favored photographers. But, most press pho-
tographers liked him. Mr. Kennedy had his unreasonable restrictions,
too—the photographers’ vehicles in motorcades were always back several
cars in the Presidential motorcades and advance arrangements were often
forgotten. When the photographers’ motorcade vehicle was a dozen cars
back in the motorcade, that prevented the photographers from seeing or
photographing the President at all times. It is the reason that no profes-
sional pictures were made of President Kennedy’s assassination. How-
ever, Mr. Kennedy was completely casual in the presence of cameras of
all types. He disliked posed and set-up pictures. This suited the photog-
raphers for they preferred the un-posed action too.”8
Atkins also wrote that the news photographers were sometimes unruly
and disheveled but were very serious about their work and some were
“true artists” seeking to make prize-winning photos. These observations
are still true today, more than 50 years later.

* * *
HISTORIANS DEBATE the issue of which president was the first to
be photographed, and they make the distinction between the first to
be photographed at all and the first to be photographed while in office.
 Insider Views and Insider Insights 5

Some of the images have been lost over the years, making the debate
even more difficult to resolve. It’s certainly true that one of the first
photos of a president in office was taken in 1846 of President James
Polk and his cabinet. It was suggested by First Lady Sarah Polk, who
was interested in what was at that time the novelty of photography.9 This
shows how long there has been a White House focus on creating images
of the nation’s top leader.
Seven of the 44 individuals who were president of the United States
were never photographed—George Washington, John Adams, Thomas
Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Martin Van Buren, and John
Tyler. At least two were photographed using an early technique called
the daguerreotype, but it happened after they left office: Andrew Jackson
and John Quincy Adams.10
“Before the advent of photography, presidents were obliged to sit for
long hours over many days to have their portraits painted in oil by the
likes of Gilbert Stuart, renowned for his likenesses of George Washing-
ton, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison,” writes historian Douglas
Brinkley. “However, no matter how skilled the artist, photographer Ansel
Adams had a point when he said, ‘Not everybody trusts paintings but
people believe photographs.’ The [perceived] truthfulness of moments
captured on film is all the more compelling when the subjects are his-
torical figures, as in the well-known daguerreotype of Polk with Dolley
Madison, widow of the fourth president. Taken [in the late 1840s] by
[photographer Mathew] Brady, the stark image remains a national trea-
sure as a visual link across time between the War of 1812 and the just-
ended Mexican American War.”11
As Brinkley notes, “the formal, stiffly posed presidential portraits of
the 19th century became less compelling to the public as the novelty of
photography wore off. By the 1880s, the appearance of photographs in
newspapers and magazines was commonplace; to command notice an
image now had to look interesting. This became easier to accomplish after
1888, when the Eastman Company of Rochester, N.Y., introduced pho-
tographic roll film that allowed for shots in quicker succession and the
handheld Kodak camera that freed subjects from the formal studio.”12

* * *
AMONG THE PRESIDENTS who were photographed, there are many
examples of how they tried to manipulate their images through visuals,
which will be described throughout this book.
6  I ntroduction

Presidential historian Robert Dallek told me that “in this age of visual
attention,” presidents have been eager to make themselves look as good
as possible for the public and use the media to promote themselves and
their agendas. Modern-day presidents believe that projecting favorable
images can mean votes in the next election, Dallek adds, so they are con-
stantly trying to enhance themselves through photography.13
In conducting my research and reviewing thousands of photos of
presidents, it struck me how smart some of them were to give photogra-
phers close access, and then release photos of interesting or compelling
scenes. It clearly enhanced their images.
Theodore Roosevelt was a pioneer in visual self-promotion. Prior to
his becoming president in 1901, he received enormous publicity by dis-
tributing photos to the newspapers of him in a flashy uniform, posing
with his troops as commander of a cavalry unit known as the Rough Rid-
ers during the Spanish American War. This strengthened his reputation
as a war hero because people could visualize it through the pictures.
As president, he would play to the cameras with dramatic hand and
arm gestures and dynamic, theatrical poses when he gave speeches, such
as addressing crowds from the back of trains. He was nicknamed “a
steam engine in trousers.”14

* * *
THREE DECADES LATER, there was another key moment for pres-
idential photography. It came when Abbie Rowe, a federal employee
working on a public road project in the Washington, D.C., area, saw
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt riding a horse nearby and took her picture.
She saw the resulting image and arranged for Rowe to take pictures full-
time for the National Park Service. In 1941, he was assigned to photo-
graph President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor’s husband, although his
access was far more limited than what White House photographers have
had in recent years.15
Rowe was the first photographer to document a president’s official
life, emphasizing major speeches and announcements, ceremonies, and
visits from foreign leaders and ambassadors. Rowe welcomed the White
House rule not to take pictures of the president in a wheelchair or being
carried from one place to another, such as into and out of vehicles. Rowe
was disabled from polio, as Roosevelt was, although in a relatively mild
way, and he sympathized with his boss’s desire not to appear vulnera-
ble.16 Rowe kept his photo job for many years, although his talents were
 Insider Views and Insider Insights 7

largely wasted. During the Kennedy administration, his role was mostly
to take official pictures and add them to scrapbooks, which also included
news clippings. The scrapbooks were given to the president periodically
as a private memento of White House life.17
John F. Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt shared a keen sensitivity to
public perceptions. “They were intensely mindful of their image and their
appearance,” says historian Dallek.18 Kennedy allowed the widespread
distribution of behind-the-scenes pictures of him with his lovely wife and
endearing children to create the image of a family man, and Roosevelt
liked to pose grinning with his cigarette holder gripped in his teeth in
what became a widely familiar image of him as an optimistic and jaunty
leader. “The whole image was to be robust and healthy,” even though
toward the end of Roosevelt’s life the image was false, Dallek says. FDR
suffered from severe heart disease, which eventually killed him in 1945.
In contrast, Richard Nixon disliked still photography and distrusted
the people who ran network television, branding them liberal elitists who
were smitten by Kennedy and would never give Nixon fair treatment.
Jimmy Carter also neglected personal photography, considering it frivo-
lous and not valuable in running the presidency. As a result, Carter and
Nixon were far behind the flow. It is difficult to find many charming,
historic or behind-the-scenes photographs of them that might have soft-
ened their images.

* * *
CECIL STOUGHTON is a wonderful case study of the important role
of the chief White House photographer. Stoughton took many of the
iconic pictures of Kennedy with his wife and children that built JFK’s
reputation as a family man, which was vital to his image, even though
Kennedy was a womanizer. Stoughton also took the famous photo of
LBJ being sworn in as president aboard Air Force One after Kennedy was
assassinated in Dallas in November 1963.

* * *
BARACK OBAMA’s emphasis on photography was strengthened by
the arrival of easy-to-use digital cameras and greatly facilitated by other
forms of modern technology, especially social media such as Flickr and
Facebook and the White House website. These have allowed the dissem-
ination of presidential images to millions more people than ever. Pete
Souza, Obama’s chief photographer, has been a pioneer in promoting
8  I ntroduction

Obama’s image as a strong leader and likeable family man, and he circu-
lated his photos farther and wider than ever before. Souza also added the
extensive use of video to the White House public-relations repertoire.
He hired former college film instructor Arun Chaudhary as the White
House videographer, rather than using only still photography.
Obama was an eager participant in Souza’s aggressive promotion, and
was proud of his own celebrity. He said in May 2016, as his presidency was
winding down: “One thing you have to keep in mind is that I’m probably
the most recorded, filmed and photographed person in history up to now,
because I’m the first president who came along in the digital age.”19
The eleven chief White House staff photographers over the years, in
addition to Stoughton and Souza, were Yoichi Okamoto, who worked
for Lyndon Johnson and is considered one of the absolute best, a man
who helped to define the mission of presidential photography in terms of
illustrating the life of the person in power; Ollie Atkins, the White House
photographer for Richard Nixon; David Kennerly, who worked for Ger-
ald Ford; Michael Evans, for Ronald Reagan; David Valdez, for George
H.W. Bush; Bob McNeely and Sharon Farmer, for Bill Clinton, and Eric
Draper for George W. Bush, and, most recently, Shealah Craighead for
Donald Trump.
This book will tell their stories, with the larger goal of shedding light
on the presidents themselves.

* * *
WHAT MAKES a good White House photographer? Access is all-
important. And those who have held the position often managed to
develop enough trust to gain admission to the most important and the
most private moments of a presidency, such as when a chief executive was
dealing with defeat or a crisis. In some cases the best and most reveal-
ing photographs were taken in the inner sanctums of the White House,
such as the Oval Office, the Situation Room, the East Wing residence,
or aboard Air Force One, the president’s iconic plane, or on the road in
the United States and abroad. And getting into those places at the right
moment is key.
“This job is all about access and trust and if you have both of those
you’re going to make interesting, historic pictures, and I think I have
both of those,” Souza said.20 In a 2011 interview, Souza explained: “My
forte is being able to develop relationships where my subjects trust me.
My continuing coverage of the Reagans long after I was an official White
 Insider Views and Insider Insights 9

House photographer [for President Reagan] is an example of my ability

to build lasting relationships that earn me trust and access.”21
“All photojournalists have the same dream: to be the only photog-
rapher with complete access at a historically significant event,” said
Bob McNeely, President Bill Clinton’s official White House photog-
rapher and former director of White House photographic operations.
“I had the opportunity to live that dream every day for five-and-a-half
years.” McNeely sought “to make a photographic record of the Clinton
presidency—within the White House and beyond. I worked to make a
record that would enable historians of the future to gain a deeper under-
standing of the office and the man who occupied it at the end of the 20th
century.”
“My basic approach was to photograph everything that I could from
every angle possible. After years of photographing political figures, the
White House and the presidency, I learned that an on-the-spot judgment
about an image’s importance doesn’t necessarily hold true over time.
If you are thinking too hard about the meaning of each picture in the
heat of moment, you probably missed the shot. I often only discovered
a photograph’s importance many months later, when I went back and
looked at it with a fresh eye and historical perspective. So I just tried to
get it all.”22
David Kennerly, who worked for President Ford, said it’s vital to con-
nect with the first lady. He noted that he and Okamoto before him had
access “upstairs and downstairs” at the White House. “Upstairs [a ref-
erence to the White House residence in the East Wing] is the first lady’s
domain,” Kennerly said. “You know, if you don’t get along with both of
them [the president and first lady], you can’t go into the family quarters
because that’s the first lady’s empire. And a lot of these White House
photographers haven’t been able to just do that with impunity. I was one
of them who could.”23
But White House shooters quickly realize that they also must form
bonds of trust and alliances with key presidential aides. The most valu-
able are the gate keepers who are closest to the president and know
the boss’s schedule minute to minute and can most accurately assess his
mood and how willing he might be to allow photography. These include
Secret Service agents, who understand the logistics as well as anyone in
the government. And the information flow works both ways. Sometimes
a photographer will make his or her unused pictures available to the
service so agents can scour crowds, rope lines, or receptions for people
10  I ntroduction

they suspect might be a threat or to identify situations that might turn

dangerous and should be avoided.
Other people who are indispensable to the photographers are the
White House chief of staff, the White House director of operations,
the president’s personal assistant known in recent years as the “body
man,” the president’s scheduler, the White House press secretary, and
the White House trip director.
Souza became an expert on the folkways of the Obama presidency.
He understood Obama as an individual, knowing when to slip into a
meeting or capture the president during private time, and when to leave
him alone. Obama described him as “part of the family.”24
“The only restrictions are really trying to let him have some privacy,”
Souza said during Obama’s second term. “So if he’s in a holding room
and there’s not really much going on, I’ll probably step out. Last week,
he was in a holding room and there was a nice picture of him with Sen-
ator Brown from Ohio. You know, that was sort of a nice situation, so
I stay in for those kinds of things. But if he’s just hanging out, or is eat-
ing lunch, you know, I just step outside the room.”25
The best White House photographers develop a keen sense about
when to absent themselves. After taking a few pictures to record a meet-
ing, a good shooter will sometimes realize that the president wants to
be left alone with the guest or guests and the photographer will slip out
of the room. It’s uncomfortable for everyone if the president has to ask
the shooter to leave, so the photographers are very sensitive to the times
their presence isn’t wanted.
Clearly, a big part of the job is discretion, and it’s vital that the pho-
tographers don’t reveal what they see and hear unless the president wants
them to, at least while a president is still in office.
“It’s amazing how much you can be involved in a situation without
affecting it,” says McNeely, the Clinton photographer “You know, you
think, oh, I gotta stay back here against the wall of the room because
otherwise I’m going to be in the middle of the picture. Well, it’s not
true. You can get out there and get close, and make good pictures and
it’s such an intense moment in what they’re dealing with that they’ll
pretty much ignore you.”26
“Most of our work isn’t seen immediately,” McNeely says. “A lot of
our imagery is made for history” and kept in the National Archives and
the presidential libraries for historians to explore later. And of course
the photographers do release some of their most compelling images
 Insider Views and Insider Insights 11

immediately if the events or decisions that are illustrated are import-

ant or interesting enough. To generate maximum interest in his work,
McNeely shot mostly in black-and-white because he considered those
images more dramatic and interesting than color shots.27
One of the reasons for Okamoto’s amazing access was his ability to
remain unobtrusive. Johnson insisted on full control over the images
that Oke and his photo staff released to the media and the public. And
LBJ, eager to look as good as his predecessor John F. Kennedy, wanted
to sign off on the release of each photograph. But LBJ did give Oke
remarkable entrée.
Since Okamoto, it hasn’t been the president but mostly key aides,
such as his White House chief of staff, press secretary, or communica-
tions director, who have filtered the photos and decided which ones
should be released.
What the best staff photographers want is to be ignored while they
are doing their jobs. They want to record history as it occurs, and don’t
want to be snapping pictures only of staged moments. So they attempt
to develop a sort of invisibility, born of trust. They become so much a
part of the White House scene that, like the desk in the Oval Office or
the portrait of Theodore Roosevelt in the Roosevelt Room, no one even
notices their presence. That’s the best approach for any White House
photographer.
But the routine can be tedious. Most of the work is not historic or
exciting but service-oriented. “Actually the meat and potatoes of what
we do is hand out pictures,” said Alice Gabriner, the official White House
photo editor and deputy director of the photo office under President
Obama. “Each time the president shakes a hand, that picture gets sent
to the person he’s meeting with and that happens every single day, and
there are a lot of pictures.” The office reviewed an average of 400 to
1,000 greeting shots out of a total of 8,000 to 20,000 photos a week,
and sometimes many more with the year-end holidays. Christmas always
is an especially busy time because the president and first lady attend so
many parties and receptions at which they shake hundreds, sometimes
thousands, of hands per day.28

* * *
IT’S VERY HELPFUL for the camera people to have a member of the
first family as an amateur photographer. They become natural allies.
Frances Cleveland, Grace Coolidge, and Jackie Kennedy were among
12  I ntroduction

several first ladies who liked to take pictures, creating an affinity with the
professionals.
Sometimes presidential children such as Susan Ford shared the same
interest. She learned about picture-taking from David Kennerly, her
father’s personal photographer, and studied photography at the Univer-
sity of Kansas. Margaret Truman was a shutterbug, prompting her father
Harry to joke, “It’s not enough that my homely countenance is at the
mercy of the press—I have to have a photographer in the family?”29

* * *
THE VISUAL HISTORIANS at the White House generally agree with
the conclusion I reached as a correspondent who has closely observed
presidents for 31 years: it takes a high degree of emotional maturity and
flexibility to do the best job as president because the range of activities
is so vast. Arun Chaudhary, who served as President Obama’s White
House videographer during his first term, wrote: “One of the most
underappreciated parts . . . is the vast emotional intelligence required
to shift between different frequencies for different events, day out and
day in, as the schedule veers wildly from a press conference to a major
national disaster to a state dinner. When, after the transition, I joined
the White House photo department as the official videographer, I grew
accustomed to capturing all the dramatic transitions of a president’s day.
One minute, I’d be filming a tearful embrace between POTUS [Presi-
dent of the United States] and a shooting victim’s family member in the
oval office; the next I’d be helping Samantha Tubman, deputy Social
Secretary, pep up a drooping sports team unused to standing for hours in
suits. When my footage of the Obama Presidency becomes public by law,
as all film and photos of the president do, I believe people will be sur-
prised by the sheer volume of these shifts in the president’s schedule.”30
Chaudhary, a former college film instructor, added: “Our leaders
need to keep up an authentic core. This is not something Lee Strasberg
can teach you. Our very best actors, to say nothing of politicians, would
be unable to sustain that much false emotion. Americans seem to, again
and again, send individuals to the White House who are capable of pro-
jecting authentic personalities.”

* * *
A DISTINCT IMAGE emerges of each president as revealed through
the lenses of the chief photographers and in the shooters’ personal
observations.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
"Excellent," Herndon said.
Oversk remarked, "You saw the Secretary of State, I suppose. Not
Krellig himself."
"Naturally. Would Krellig let someone like me into his presence?"
Herndon's ears rose at the mention of his enemy's name. He said,
"What's this about the Seigneur?"
"A little deal," Benjin chortled. "I've been doing some very delicate
negotiating while you were away. And I signed the contract today."
"What contract?" Herndon demanded.
"We have a royal patron now, it seems. The Seigneur Krellig has
gone into the starstone business himself. Not in competition with us,
though. He's bought a controlling interest in us."
Herndon felt as if his vital organs had been transmuted to lead. In a
congealed voice he said, "And what are the terms of this
agreement?"
"Simple. Krellig realized the starstone trade, though illegal, was
unstoppable. Rather than alter the legislation and legalize the trade,
which would be morally undesirable and which would also tend to
lower the price of the gems, he asked the Lord Moaris to place him
in contact with some group of smugglers who would work for the
Crown. Moaris, naturally, suggested his brother. Oversk preferred to
let me handle the negotiations, and for the past month I've been
meeting secretly with Krellig's Secretary of State to work out a deal."
"The terms of which are?"
"Krellig guarantees us immunity from prosecution, and at the same
time promises to crack down heavily on our competition. He pledges
us a starstone monopoly, in other words, and so we'll be able to
lower our price to Brennt and jack up the selling price to whatever
the traffic will bear. In return for this we turn over eight per cent of our
gross profits to the Seigneur, and agree to supply him with six
starstones annually, at cost, for the Seigneur to use as gifts to his
enemies. Naturally we also transfer our fealties from the combine to
the Seigneur himself. He holds our controls to assure loyal service."
Herndon sat as if stunned. His hands felt chilled; coldness rippled
through his body. Loyalty to Krellig? His enemy, the person he had
sworn to destroy?
The conflict seared through his mind and body. How could he fulfill
his earlier vow, now that this diametrically opposed one was in
effect? Transfer of fealty was a common thing. By the terms of
Benjin's agreement, Herndon now was a sworn vassal of the
Seigneur.
If he killed Krellig, that would violate his bond. If he served the
Seigneur in all faith, he would break trust with himself and leave
home and parents unavenged. It was an impossible dilemma. He
quivered with the strain of resolving it.
"The spacerogue doesn't look happy about the deal," Oversk
commented. "Or are you sick, Herndon?"
"I'm all right," Herndon said stonily. "It's the cold outside, that's all.
Chills a man."
Fealty to Krellig! Behind his back they had sold themselves and him
to the man he hated most. Herndon's ethical code was based
entirely on the concept of loyalty and unswerving obedience, of the
sacred nature of an oath. But now he found himself bound to two
mutually exclusive oaths. He was caught between them, racked and
drawn apart; the only escape from the torment was death.
He stood up. "Excuse me," he said. "I have an appointment
elsewhere in the city. You can reach me at my usual address if you
need me for anything."

It took him the better part of a day to get to see the Chief Steward of
Moaris Keep and explain to him that he had been unavoidably
detained in the far worlds, and that he fully intended to re-enter the
Moaris' service and perform his duties loyally and faithfully. After
quite some wrangling he was reinstated as one of the Second
Stewards, and given functions to carry out in the daily life of the
sprawling residence that was Moaris Keep.
Several days passed before he caught as much as a glimpse of the
Lady Moaris. That did not surprise him; the Keep covered fifteen
acres of Borlaam City, and Lord and Lady occupied private quarters
on the uppermost level, the rest of the huge place being devoted to
libraries, ballrooms, art galleries, and other housings, for the Moaris
treasures, all of these rooms requiring a daily cleaning by the
household staff.
He saw her finally as he was passing through the fifth-level hallway
in search of the ramp that would take him to his next task,
cataloguing the paintings of the sixth-level gallery. He heard a rustle
of crinoline first, and then she proceeded down the hall, flanked on
each side by copper-colored Toppidan giants and in front and back
by glistening-gowned ladies-in-waiting.
The Lady Moaris herself wore sheer garments that limned the
shapely lines of her body. Her face was sad; it seemed to Herndon,
as he saw her from afar, that she was under some considerable
strain.
He stepped to one side to let the procession go past; but she saw
him, and glanced quickly to the side at which he stood. Her eyes
widened in surprise as she recognized him. He did not dare a smile.
He waited until she had moved on, but inwardly he gloated. It was
not difficult to read the expression in her eyes.
Later that day, a blind Agozlid servant came up to him and silently
handed him a sealed note. Herndon pocketed it, waiting until he was
alone in a corridor that was safe from the Lord Moaris' spy-rays. He
knew it was safe; the spy-ray in that corridor had been defective, and
he himself had removed it that morning, meaning to replace it later in
the day.
He broke the seal. The note said simply: I have waited a month for
you. Come to me tonight; M. is to spend the night at the Seigneur's
palace. Karla will admit you.
The photonically-sensitized ink faded from sight in a moment; the
paper was blank. He thrust it in a disposal hatch, smiling.
He quietly made his way toward the eleventh-level chamber of the
Lady Moaris when the Keep had darkened for the night. Her lady-in-
waiting Karla was on duty, the bronze-haired one who had served as
go-between aboard the Lord Nathiir. Now she wore night robes of
translucent silk; a test of his fidelity, no doubt. Herndon carefully kept
his eyes from her body and said, "I am expected."
"Yes. Come with me."
It seemed to him that the look in her eyes was a strange one: desire,
jealousy, hatred perhaps? But she turned and led him within, down
corridors lit only with a faint nightglow. She nudged an opener; a
door before him flickered and was momentarily nullified. He stepped
through and it returned to the solid state behind him.
The Lady Moaris was waiting.
She wore only the filmiest of gowns, and the longing was evident in
her eyes. Herndon said, "Is this safe?"
"It is. Moaris is away at Krellig's." Her lip curled in a bitter scowl. "He
spends half his nights there, toying with the Seigneur's cast-off
women. The room is sealed against spy-rays. There's no way he can
find out you've been here."
"And the girl—Karla? You trust her?"
"As much as I can trust anyone." Her arms sought his shoulders. "My
rogue," she murmured. "Why did you leave us at Molleccogg?"
"Business of my own, milady."
"I missed you. Molleccogg was a bore without you."
Herndon smiled gravely. "Believe me, I didn't leave you because I
chose to. But I had sworn to carry out duty elsewhere."
She pulled him urgently to her. Herndon felt pity for this lonely
noblewoman, first in rank among the ladies of the court, condemned
to seek lovers among the stewards and grooms.
"Anything I have is yours," she promised him. "Ask for anything!
Anything!"
"There is one prize you might secure for me," Herndon said grimly.
"Name it. The cost doesn't matter."
"There is no cost," Herndon said. "I simply seek an invitation to the
court of the Seigneur. You can secure this through your husband.
Will you do it for me?"
"Of course," she whispered. She clung to him hungrily. "I'll speak to
Moaris—tomorrow."

CHAPTER VI
At the end of the week, Herndon visited the Avenue of Bronze and
learned from Bollar Benjin that sales of the starstones proceeded
well, that the arrangement under royal patronage was a happy one,
and that they would soon be relieved of most of their stock. It would,
therefore, be necessary for him to make another trip to Vyapore
during the next several weeks. He agreed, but requested an
advance of two months' salary.
"I don't see why not," Benjin agreed. "You're a valuable man, and we
have the money to spare."
He handed over a draft for ten thousand stellors. Herndon thanked
him gravely, promised to contact him when it was time for him to
make the journey to Vyapore and left.
That night he departed for Meld XVII, where he sought out the
surgeon who had altered his features after his flight from sacked
Zonnigog. He requested certain internal modifications. The surgeon
was reluctant, saying the operation was a risky one, very difficult,
and entailed a fifty per cent chance of total failure, but Herndon was
stubborn.
It cost him twenty-five thousand stellors, nearly all the money he
had, but he considered the investment a worthy one. He returned to
Borlaam the next day. A week had elapsed since his departure.
He presented himself at Moaris Keep, resumed his duties, and once
again spent the night with the Lady Moaris. She told him that she
had wangled a promise from her husband, and that he was soon to
be invited to court. Moaris had not questioned her motives, and she
said the invitation was a certainty.
Some days later a message was delivered to him, addressed to Barr
Herndon of Zonnigog. It was in the hand of the private secretary to
Moaris, and it said that the Lord Moaris had chosen to exert his
patronage in favor of Barr Herndon, and that Herndon would be
expected to pay his respects to the Seigneur Krellig.
The invitation from the Seigneur came later in the day, borne by a
resplendent Toppidan footman, commanding him to present himself
at the court reception the following evening, on pain of displeasing
the Seigneur. Herndon exulted. He had attained the pinnacle of
Borlaamese success, now; he was to be allowed into the presence
of the sovereign. This was the culmination of all his planning.
He dressed in the court robes that he had purchased weeks before
for just such an event—robes that had cost him more than a
thousand stellors, sumptuous with inlaid precious gems and rare
metals. He visited a tonsorial parlor and had an artificial beard
affixed, in the fashion of many courtiers who disliked growing beards
but who desired to wear them at ceremonial state functions. He was
bathed and combed, perfumed, and otherwise prepared for his debut
at court. He also made certain that the surgical modifications
performed on him by the Meldian doctor would be effective when the
time came.
The shadows of evening dropped. The moons of Borlaam rose,
dancing brightly across the sky. The evening fireworks display cast
brilliant light through the winter sky, signifying that this was the
birthmonth of Borlaam's Seigneur.
Herndon sent for the carriage he had hired. It arrived, a magnificent
four-tube model bright with gilt paint, and he left his shabby dwelling-
place. The carriage soared into the night sky; twelve minutes later, it
descended in the courtyard of the Grand Palace of Borlaam, that
monstrous heap of masonry that glowered down at the capital city
from the impregnable vantage-point of the Hill of Fire.
Floodlights illuminated the Grand Palace. Another man might have
been stirred by the imposing sight; Herndon merely felt an upwelling
of anger. Once his family had lived in a palace too: not of this size, to
be sure, for the people of Zonnigog were modest and unpretentious
in their desires. But it had been a palace all the same, until the
armies of Krellig razed it.
He dismounted from his carriage and presented his invitation to the
haughty Seigneurial guards on duty. They admitted him, after
checking to see that he carried no concealed weapons, and he was
conducted to an antechamber in which he found the Lord Moaris.
"So you're Herndon," Moaris said speculatively. He squinted and
tugged at his beard.
Herndon compelled himself to kneel. "I thank you for the honor your
Grace bestows upon me this night."
"You needn't thank me," Moaris grunted. "My wife asked for your
name to be put on my invitation list. But I suppose you know all that.
You look familiar, Herndon. Where have I seen you before?"
Presumably Moaris knew that Herndon had been employed in his
own service. But he merely said, "I once had the honor of bidding
against you for a captive proteus in the slave market, milord."
A flicker of recognition crossed Moaris' seamed face, and he smiled
coldly. "I seem to remember," he said.
A gong sounded.
"We mustn't keep the Seigneur waiting," said Moaris. "Come."
Together, they went forward to the Grand Chamber of the Seigneur
of Borlaam.
Moaris entered first, as befitted his rank, and took his place to the left
of the monarch, who sat on a raised throne decked with violet and
gold. Herndon knew protocol; he knelt immediately.
"Rise," the Seigneur commanded. His voice was a dry whisper,
feathery-sounding, barely audible and yet commanding all the same.
Herndon rose and stared levelly at Krellig.
The monarch was a tiny man, dried and fleshless; he seemed almost
to be a humpback. Two beady, terrifying eyes glittered from a
wrinkled, world-weary face. Krellig's lips were thin and bloodless, his
nose a savage slash, his chin wedge-shaped.
Herndon let his eyes rove. The hall was huge, as he had expected;
vast pillars supported the ceiling, and rows of courtiers flanked the
walls. There were women, dozens of them: the Seigneur's
mistresses, no doubt.
In the middle of the hall hung suspended something that looked to
be a giant cage, completely cloaked in thick draperies of red velvet.
Some pet of the Seigneur's probably lurked within: a vicious pet,
Herndon theorized, possibly a Villidoni gyrfalcon with honed talons.
"Welcome to the court," the Seigneur murmured. "You are the guest
of my friend Moaris, eh?"
"I am, Sire," Herndon said. In the quietness of the hall his voice
echoed cracklingly.
"Moaris is to provide us all with some amusement this evening,"
remarked the monarch. The little man chuckled in anticipatory glee.
"We are very grateful to your sponsor, the Lord Moaris, for the
pleasure he is to bring us this night."
Herndon frowned. He wondered obscurely whether he was to be the
source of amusement. He stood his ground unafraid; before the
evening had ended, he himself would be amused at the expense of
the others.
"Raise the curtain," Krellig commanded.
Instantly two Toppidan slaves emerged from the corners of the
throneroom and jerked simultaneously on heavy cords that
controlled the curtain over the cage. Slowly the thick folds of velvet
lifted, revealing, as Herndon had suspected, a cage.
There was a girl in the cage.
She hung suspended by her wrists from a bar mounted at the roof of
the cage. She was naked; the bar revolved, turning her like an
animal trussed to a spit. Herndon froze, not daring to move, staring
in sudden astonishment at the slim bare body dangling there.
It was a body he knew well.
The girl in the cage was the Lady Moaris.
Seigneur Krellig smiled benignly; he murmured in a gentle voice,
"Moaris, the show is yours and the audience awaits. Don't keep us
waiting."

Moaris slowly moved toward the center of the ballroom floor. The
marble under his feet was brightly polished and reflected him; his
boots thundered as he walked.
He turned, facing Krellig, and said in a calm, controlled tone, "Ladies
and gentlemen of the Seigneur's court, I beg leave to transact a little
of my domestic business before your eyes. The lady in the cage, as
most of you, I believe, are aware, is my wife."
A ripple of hastily-hushed comment was emitted by the men and
women of the court. Moaris gestured and a spotlight flashed upward,
illuminating the woman in the cage.
Herndon saw that her wrists were cruelly pinioned and that the blue
veins stood out in sharp relief against her pale arms. She swung in a
small circle as the bar above her turned in its endless rotation.
Beads of sweat trickled down her back and down her stomach, and
the harsh sobbing intake of her breath was audible in the silence.
Moaris said casually, "My wife has been unfaithful to me. A trusted
servant informed me of this not long ago: she has cheated me
several times with no less a personage than an obscure member of
our household, a groom or a lackey or some other person. When I
questioned her, she did not deny this accusation. The Seigneur"—
Moaris bowed in a throneward direction—"has granted me
permission to chastise her here, to provide me with greater
satisfaction and you with a moment of amusement."
Herndon did not move. He watched as Moaris drew from his sash a
glittering little heat-gun. Calmly the nobleman adjusted the aperture
to minimum. He gestured; a side of the cage slid upward, giving him
free target.
He lifted the heat-gun.
Flick!
A bright tongue of flame licked out—and the girl in the cage uttered a
little moan as a pencil-thin line was seared across her flanks.
Flick!
Again the beam played across her body. Flick! Again. Lines of pain
were traced across her breasts, her throat, her knees, her back. She
revolved helplessly as Moaris amused himself, carving line after line
along her body with the heat-ray. It was only with an effort that
Herndon held still. The members of the court chuckled as the Lady
Moaris writhed and danced in an effort to escape the inexorable lash
of the beam.
Moaris was an expert. He sketched patterns on her body, always
taking care that the heat never penetrated below the upper surface
of the flesh. It was a form of torture that might endure for hours, until
the blood bubbled in her veins and she died.
Herndon realized the Seigneur was peering at him. "Do you find this
courtly amusement to your taste, Herndon?" Krellig asked.
"Not quite, Sire." A hum of surprise rose that such a newcomer to the
court should dare to contradict the Seigneur. "I would prefer a
quicker death for the lady."
"And rob us of our sport?" Krellig asked.

"I would indeed do that," said Herndon. Suddenly he thrust open his
jewelled cloak; the Seigneur cowered back as if he expected a
weapon to come forth, but Herndon merely touched a plate in his
chest, activating the device that the Meldian had implanted in his
body. The neuronic mesh functioned in reverse; gathering a charge
of deadly force, it sent the bolt surging along Herndon's hand. A
bright arc of fire leaped from Herndon's pointing finger and
surrounded the girl in the cage.
"Barr!" she screamed, breaking her silence at last, and died.

Again Herndon discharged the neuronic force, and Moaris, his hands
singed, dropped his heat-gun.
"Allow me to introduce myself," Herndon said, as Krellig stared
white-faced at him and the nobles of the court huddled together in
fright. "I am Barr Herndon, son of the First Earl of Zonnigog.
Somewhat over a year ago a courtier's jest roused you to lay waste
to your fief of Zonnigog and put my family to the sword. I have not
forgotten that day."
"Seize him!" Krellig shrieked.
"Anyone who touches me will be blasted with the fire," Herndon said.
"Any weapon directed at me will recoil upon its owner. Hold your
peace and let me finish.
"I am also Barr Herndon, Second Steward to Lord Moaris, and the
lover of the woman who died before you. It must comfort you,
Moaris, to know that the man who cuckolded you was no mere
groom, but a noble of Zonnigog.
"I am also," Herndon went on, in the dead silence, "Barr Herndon the
spacerogue, driven to take up a mercenary's trade by the destruction
of my household. In that capacity I became a smuggler of starstones,
and"—he bowed—"through an ironic twist, found myself owing a
debt of fealty to none other than you, Seigneur.
"I hereby revoke that oath of fealty, Krellig—and for the crime of
breaking an oath to my monarch, I sentence myself to death. But
also, Krellig, I order a sentence of death upon your head for the
wanton attack upon my homeland. And you, Moaris—for your cruel
and barbaric treatment of this woman whom you never loved, you
must die too.
"And all of you—you onlookers and sycophants, you courtiers and
parasites, you too must die. And you, the court clowns, the dancing
bears and captive life-forms of far worlds, I will kill you too, as once I
killed a slave proteus—not out of hatred, but simply to spare you
from further torment."
He paused. The hall was terribly silent; then someone to the right of
the throne shouted, "He's crazy! Let's get out of here!"
He dashed for the great doors, which had been closed. Herndon let
him get within ten feet of safety, then blasted him down with a
discharge of life-force. The mechanism within his body recharged
itself, drawing its power from the hatred within him and discharging
through his fingertips.
Herndon smiled at Lord Moaris, pale now. He said, "I'll be more
generous to you than you to your Lady. A quick death for you."
He hurled a bolt of force at the nobleman. Moaris recoiled, but there
was no hiding possible; he stood bathed in light for a moment, and
then the charred husk dropped to the ground.
A second bolt raked the crowd of courtiers. A third Herndon aimed at
the throne; the costly hangings of the throne-area caught first, and
Krellig half-rose before the bolt of force caught him and hurled him
back dead.
Herndon stood alone in the middle of the floor. His quest was at its
end; he had achieved his vengeance. All but the last: on himself, for
having broken the oath he had involuntarily sworn to the Seigneur.
Life held no further meaning for him. It was odious to consider
returning to a spacerogue's career, and only death offered absolution
from his oaths.
He directed a blazing beam of force at one of the great pillars that
supported the throneroom's ceiling. It blackened, then buckled. He
blasted apart another of the pillars, and the third.
The roof groaned; the tons of masonry were suddenly without
support, after hundreds of years. Herndon waited, and smiled in
triumph as the ceiling hurtled down at him.
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