The Man (Wallace novel)

The Man is a 1964 novel by Irving Wallace that speculatively explores the socio-political consequences in U.S. society when a Black man becomes President of the United States. The novel's title derives from the contemporary — fifties, sixties, seventies — American slang English, "The Man".

Plot introduction

As a novel, The Man — written before the 25th Amendment to the national Constitution — begins, the Vice-Presidency is vacant, because of the incumbent's death. Then, while overseas in Germany, the President and the Speaker of the House suffer a freak accident; the President is killed, the Speaker of the House later dies in surgery. The Presidency then devolves onto Douglass Dilman, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, a black man earlier elected to that office in deference to racial tokenism.

At the time of writing, more than four decades before the election of Barack Obama, Wallace clearly could not conceive of a Black person actually contesting the elections and winning the Presidency; he assumed that it could only happen through a freak combination of completely unforeseen circumstances. And at the end of the book the protagonist - though having credibly dealt with considerable problems during his Presidency and gained some popularity - does not consider running for election.

Plot summary

President Douglass Dilman's presidency is marked by white racists, black political activists, and an attempted assassination. Later, he is impeached on false charges for firing the United States Secretary of State. Moreover, racially, one of his children, "passing" for white, also is targeted and harassed.

Allusions and references to current history, geography, and science

The impeachment trial of President Douglass Dilman closely parallels that of President Andrew Johnson (at the time the only Presidential impeachment proceedings to reach the articles stage, before Richard Nixon in 1974 and Bill Clinton in 1998).

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

In 1972, the novel The Man was adapted into the motion picture The Man, featuring James Earl Jones as President Douglas Dilman.