John F. Kennedy liked to swim naked at lunchtime. Franklin D. Roosevelt made staffers hide his wheelchair at dinner parties. Lyndon B. Johnson complained about the water pressure. J.B. West, who served as head usher at the White House for 28 years, absorbed a lot of interesting tidbits during his decades on the job—and he shared them all in his unusual memoir.
A Butler’s Eye View
Upstairs at the White House offers a behind-the-scenes look at the daily lives of the First Families who occupied the mansion during West’s long tenure. From lavish parties to political crises and assassination attempts, he observed a lot of history. Get the goods in our latest Instaread.
