Gray eminence.(The Man on Whom Nothing Was Lost: The Grand Strategy of Charles Hill)(Book review)

The Man on Whom Nothing Was Lost: The Grand Strategy of Charles Hill, by Molly Worthen (Houghton Mifflin, 368 pp., $25)

THE average reader may know the names of the men for whom Charles Hill has worked--Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Boutros Boutros-Ghali--but, unless he travels in diplomatic circles or recently graduated from Yale, he probably doesn't know the name of Charles Hill himself. That may soon change, however, if Molly Worthen, former Hill student and now author of a Hill biography, gets her way. Carlyle contended that "the history of the world is but the biography of great men"--heroes who shape history. But every Great Man relies on many smaller men, who write his speeches, formulate his policies, and generally get things done. And that is what Charles Hill does.

It is hard to convey the magnitude of Hill's reputation at Yale. Students who have never met him show up in his office desperately seeking career advice. They listen as earnestly as ancient Greeks consulting the Delphic Oracle. But Hill's pronouncements--unlike those of the oracle--are hardly riddles; they are clear, firm directives. "[He] knows unswervingly what he stands for," writes Worthen. "He is like dry land to sailors too long at sea." College is different these ...