All the King's Men

All the King’s Men was inspired by and loosely based on the real-life political career of populist Louisiana governor (and later US Senator) Huey Long. Like Long, Willie wields control in his state through unethical political practices, reserving excessive amounts of power for himself and eliminating and dominating any enemies. He ran for office on a platform of social reform to benefit the common people, but he achieved that idealistic goal through sometimes unscrupulous means. Like Willie Stark, Long staked a large part of his political legacy on the construction of a publicly funded hospital that was supposed to offer free care to all—though this goal was imperfectly realized. He embarked on a program of public spending for the construction of roads and bridges, and he greatly increased funding for state universities. In All the King’s Men, Willie does his best to help the rural communities that resemble his hometown. His biggest project is based on Huey’s own work. He seeks to build a grand hospital, with state-of-the-art equipment, that will help those in need for free. Huey also used his benevolent public image to distract people from his more corrupt and illegal activities, just as Willie does. During Long’s 1930 senate campaign, one of his most prominent critics, Sam Irby, was abducted by Long’s bodyguards, who released him four days later, after the election. Willie uses intimidation through blackmail consistently throughout the novel. He does this with powerful people like Judge Irwin and even with other elected officials. In fact, he uses blackmail to completely halt impeachment proceedings against himself. Like Willie, Huey Long died in an assassination that was both political and personal, killed by the son-in-law of a judge who had lost his position to Long's gerrymandering. Long’s bodyguards shot the assassin, Carl Weiss, over 60 times, killing him instantly. Long died in the hospital 31 hours later from internal bleeding.