RX: "RN"

When Dick Cheney had his first heart attack in 1978, he was in the midst of his first campaign for Congress. He recuperated by bench-pressing 37's 1013-page autobiography, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, which was evidently prescribed by Nixon's editorial assistant, Frank Gannon. N.C. Aizenman reports:

Cheney said he asked the internist who was caring for him — there were no practicing cardiologists in Wyoming at the time — whether he would have to give up politics for a less demanding line of work.

“He said, ‘Aw hell, Dick, hard work never killed anybody,’ ” Cheney recalled.

Still, the doctor did prescribe some major lifestyle changes for Cheney — who had been smoking two to three packs a day as President Gerald Ford’s chief of staff.

He took a month-long rest, during which he said he “sat under a tree” reading an advance copy of President Richard Nixon’s biography, which a friend had helped ghost write, while his wife, Lynn, campaigned on his behalf.