That bleak November day in Springfield after the election it did not seem so, but the truth is that the best years of Adlai Stevenson's leadership lay ahead.

So ended the first book of John Bartlow Martin's sweeping biography of one of the most admired and revered political figures of our time. Here now is the eagerly awaited conclusion to the work that critics have already acclaimed a classic of political biography.

ADLAI STEVENSON AND THE WORLD covers Stevenson's career following his first campaign for the presidency in 1952 through his death in 1965: years in which he occupied a position unique in both American and international politics--that of a statesman who held no elected public office yet commanded the respect and influence of a worldwide constituency.

During these years, Stevenson stood for many as the guardian and spokesman of the American conscience, articulating humane and liberal traditions against a contagion of unreason and anti-intellectualism. Throughout the fifties his views on such issues as nuclear testing, civil rights, federal aid to education, the draft, and American foreign policy beyond mere partisan railings. They were clarion calls to common sense that were indeed proved visionary a decade later when formulated into politics of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

Yet it was Stevenson's tragedy--and quite possibly his country's--that he was a man before his time, that he was again to be defeated in his bid for the Oval Office. And that later in his years as Ambassador to the United Nations while he represented our country there better than anyone else ever, he himself was at the same time absolutely uncomfortable with the Kennedy administration he tried to serve.

With exceptional vividness and candor, John Bartlow Martin completes his portrait of Adlai Stevenson, giving us the full measure of the man, the making of a world leader, and, almost, the making of a President