Butler: A Witness to History

By Wil Haygood

From Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities fellow Wil Haygood comes a mesmerizing inquiry into the life of Eugene Allen, the butler who ignited a nation's imagination and inspired a major motion picture: The Butler: A Witness to History, the highly anticipated film that stars six Oscar winners, including Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey (honorary and nominee), Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding Jr., Vanessa Redgrave, and Robin Williams; as well as Oscar nominee Terrence Howard, Mariah Carey, John Cusack, Lenny Kravitz, James Marsden, David Oyelowo, Alex Pettyfer, Alan Rickman, and Liev Schreiber.

With a foreword by the Academy Award nominated director Lee Daniels, The Butler not only explores Allen's life and service to eight American Presidents, from Truman to Reagan, but also includes an essay, in the vein of James Baldwin’s jewel The Devil Finds Work, that explores the history of black images on celluloid and in Hollywood, and fifty-seven pictures of Eugene Allen, his family, the presidents he served, and the remarkable cast of the movie.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia
• Release date: Oct 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781925030389

Wil Haygood

A Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities fellow and a writer for the Washington Post, Wil Haygood has been described as a cultural historian. He is the author of a trio of iconic biographies. His King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., told the story of the enigmatic New York congressman and was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. That was followed—after publication of a family memoir—by In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr., which was awarded the ASCAP Deems Taylor Music Biography Award, the Zora Neale Hurston-Richard Wright Legacy Award, and the Nonfiction Book of the Year Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. In 2009, he wrote Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson, which told the story of the famed New York pugilist known as much for his prowess in the ring as his elegant style outside of it. Haygood is an associate producer of Lee Daniels’ The Butler.

Reviews for Butler

[sallylou61 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book about Eugene Allen, a butler at the White House during the administrations of Presidents Truman through Reagan. The first part of the book is an expansion of an article appearing in the Washington Post around the time of President Obama's 2008 election. The author wanted to find a black person who had served in the White House for several decades; he found Eugene Allen. The story includes the author's search for such a person, his interview with Allen and his wife, Helene, and seeing all the memorabilia they had, and Allen's story of working in the White House, and his attending the inauguration of President Obama. The second part of the book is basically an interesting history of blacks in U.S. movies including both their portrayal and the number of black actors, actresses, etc. up through the making of the movie, "The Butler." Also included are 16 pages of plates, many in color, both of Mr. Allen himself and of the movie.

[agarcia85257 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I actually felt like I should like it more. But I didn't. I confess that I watched the movie before picking up the book and the movie was pretty awesome. It was a disappointment to find that the book and the movie, with the exception of having the same setting and circumstance, were vastly different. The names of the main character were not even the same.This is really too bad. Because this is an important story, a tragic but inspiring life to learn about. But in this format it falls short. Making this one of the few times I can honestly say the movie was better.The first half of the book is the author's recollections of meeting Eugene Allen, the butler, and his desire on the eve of Barack Obama's campaign run to write an article of Eugene's tenure in the White House. The second half of the story is dedicated to telling the story of the making of the movie. It actually seems that more time is dedicated in the book, The Butler, to addressing Hollywood and the movie the Butler as well as the cinema's treatment of African American actors than is given to Eugene Allen.See the movie, skip the book.

[hemlokgang · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Quite good. Parallel stories of father and son over time as they try to find their place in a world both full of and fighting racism. Based on the life of Cecil Gaines, a boy from a cotton farm who becomes a White House butler to several Presidents.

[jostars-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Butler is a brief but intriguing look at the life of Eugene Allen, who became a White House butler and served for more than three decades before, during, and after the civil rights movement. On one level, it is Allen’s personal story, and on another level, it is the story of African-Americans in the 20th century. Although the book left me wanting more – something the movie did not provide – The Butler is worth a read.

[jbarringer-2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a lovely little book, and a nice accompaniment to the movie. The photos and history of the man whose life provided the inspiration for the movie were interesting, and I enjoyed reading about how this project came about. I also liked the history of Black people in the movie industry that led up to there being so many great actors available to be cast in this movie. It is crazy to think about how the United States was just a few decades ago, and to realize how impossible a movie like this would have been just 50 years ago. I definitely recommend reading this book and watching the movie.

[thelostentwife · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

There are no words to describe how disappointed I was by The Butler by Wil Haygood. What I was expecting was a book about Eugene Allen - you know, the famous man who was the White House butler and served eight American Presidents. Basically, you know, what was written in the summary of the book. But I should have been forewarned because look at the first line of that summary - it's a lauding of all of the accolades of Wil Haygood. And that's ultimately what The Butler was about - Wil Haywood's story as he sought out the man who inspired the story.Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on Dec. 1, 2013.

[bookczuk · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The audio of this book is read by people involved in the movie that was created about this little slice of history: the story around the black man who served 8 presidents in the White House, as a butler, during the times when the Civil Rights Movement.Some parts were amazing, some too brief, but the story is a fascinating one.