Saturday Evening Post, and, in Ferrell's view, led him to wait until after Truman's death to publish Plain Speaking to avoid the possibility of any legal action. Truman biographer David McCullough also criticized the historical accuracy of Plain Speaking, noting that in Truman's famous meeting with General MacArthur on Wake Island in 1950, "MacArthur [in the book] would be pictured deliberately trying to upstage Truman by circling the airstrip, waiting for Truman to land first, thus putting the President in the position of having to wait for the general. But it did not happen that way. MacArthur was not only on the ground, he had arrived the night before." McCullough also wrote that "[in] many of his observations to Miller, [Truman] was more harsh than he meant or that he indicated at the time." With regard to any criticism of the book, Miller had this to say in the preface to Plain Speaking: "Truman told it the way he remembered it. So as I think Mr. Truman would have said, the hell with the purists. There are already hundreds of books and there will be hundreds more to clear up those small details that Mr. Truman and his friends may have misremembered...." Notes References Plain Speaking an Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman. G.P. Putnam Sons. New York. 1974. On Being Different: What It Means to Be a Homosexual, Penguin Classics, 2012 reprint. Book of the Month Club News. February 1974. Merle Miller: A Sense of History by Robert Alan Aurthur Merle Miller's journals and other writings. 1936 to 1986. Property of the Estate of Merle Miller. Carol V. Hanley, Executrix The Examiner. Eastern Jackson County's Daily Newspaper. Independence, Missouri.Wednesday. October 30, 1974 McCullough, David. Truman.'' Simon & Schuster. New York. 1992. External links Harry S. Truman Library. Merle Miller Papers. University of Iowa Library Manuscript Register. Merle Miller Papers. Boston University Special Collections. Archival Research Center. Merle Miller Papers. 20th-century American novelists American male novelists 20th-century American biographers 20th-century American memoirists American tax resisters Novelists from Iowa People from Danbury, Connecticut Alumni of the London School of Economics 1919 births 1986 deaths People from Marshalltown, Iowa American LGBT novelists American male biographers 20th-century American male writers LGBT people from Iowa 20th-century LGBT people