Born: 5 February 1900
Died: 14 July 1965 (heart attack, age 65)
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
Best known as:
Presidential runner-up of 1952 and 1956

Blog posts mentioning Adlai Stevenson

Arlene Francis, Accidental Killer

4 good links

The Last of the Beautiful Losers
Slate article from June 2000 on Stevenson's place in US political history
Adlai Stevenson Papers
Index and a solid biography from Princeton; too bad the papers themselves aren't online
The Adlai Stevenson Moment
The Washington Post remembers his famous U.N. speech during the Cuban Missile Crisis
A Voice of Conscience
Illustrated biography from Harvard Square Library

Adlai Stevenson Biography

State Governor

Adlai Stevenson was a leading Democrat of the 1950s, famed for his quick wit and deep intellect, and for his eloquence in support of liberal causes. (Those same qualities led detractors to nickname him The Egghead.) He was the Democratic candidate for president in 1952 and 1956, losing badly both times to Dwight Eisenhower. Stevenson was the governor of Illinois from 1949-53, and served as the American ambassador to the United Nations during the John Kennedy administration. Stevenson's son, Adlai III, later was a United States senator from Illinois (1970-81).

Extra credit:

Stevenson's grandfather, the first Adlai Stevenson, was vice president during Grover Cleveland's second term (1893-97)... During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, Stevenson made a dramatic speech in the United Nations, confronting the Soviet Union about its missiles in Cuba. In modern politics, similar incidents of high political drama are sometimes called "Adlai Stevenson moments."