Publishers initially showed little interest in Paul Leicester Ford's first novel, The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of Him, but after it finally came to print, the book became an immediate bestseller. It chronicles the life and rise to power of Peter Stirling, a rare breed of politician who eschews the trappings of success and works tirelessly for the good of the people. Some readers believed the novel was a fictionalized version of the life of then-President Grover Cleveland, though both the author and the politician repudiated this theory.