So How Many Other Stories In McCain's Books Are Bullshit? Did He Even Write His Books?

For more than two decades, McCain offered little public reflection on the personal meaning he found in his military experience, even as he voted on issues of war and peace and became involved in policy related to Vietnam.

"People knew the POW story and that side of his life," said Torie Clarke, McCain's press secretary following his election to Congress in 1982. "We were trying to get a foundation on other issues."

But as McCain moved toward a presidential run, there was new interest in his biography. In 1997, New York-based agent Flip Brophy approached McCain with the idea of writing a multigenerational family memoir that linked McCain's story to that of his father and grandfather, both Navy admirals. McCain enlisted Salter, his chief of staff and primary speechwriter, to work with him on a proposal.

Salter, 53, who spent four years maintaining railroad tracks in his native Iowa before attending college and working for UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, had been hired by McCain in 1988 as a legislative aide. The senator, who had never previously relied on a speechwriter, bonded quickly with Salter over their common literary interests, especially Irish fiction, passing between them the short stories of William Trevor and novels of Roddy Doyle.

"I always believed that Mark is for John McCain the ideal collaborator because Mark can channel John McCain's voice," said Robert Timberg, who first met Salter while writing about McCain for "The Nightingale's Song," his 1995 book about Naval Academy graduates. "I sometimes joke that John McCain is really Mark Salter."