“The Meanest Man in Congress” was this region’s greatest blessing in Washington, at least to the voting majority of Southeast Texans who returned him there for four decades.

A father-son duo of authors — dad Timothy McNulty, a former White House correspondent; and son Brendan McNulty, a senior consultant at the World Bank — have published a biography of former U.S. Rep. Jack Brooks of Beaumont, who was something of a terror as a committee chair but a champion of safeguarding the taxpayers’ investment in their government.

The lifelong Democrat was old school, too, when it came to working with fellow members of the U.S. House of Representatives. He’d cross the political aisles not only to forge agreements on bills but also in collegiality with his fellow public servants, no matter the party. If politics is the art of coalition building, then Brooks was both artist and builder.

McNulty and McNulty will sign their Brooks biography, product of a decade’s work and published this year by NewSouth Books in Montgomery, Alabama, at a signing scheduled for 5-7 p.m. Thursday at the Museum of the Gulf Coast, 700 Procter St., Port Arthur. Jeb Brooks, the congressman’s son, and other family and friends will join them. It’s an event worth putting on your calendar.

The younger McNulty said he and his dad were energized by interest in their book, even in its research and early writing stages — “as soon as we found out there was an appetite among Jack Brooks’ former constituents, friends and colleagues to have his story written down.”

He said he himself was “engrossed” in the story because of Brooks’ approach to holding office and working not for his own self-aggrandizement but behind the scenes, oftentimes in committee rooms or in meetings with colleagues.

Brooks’ commitment to knowing the details and rules and working through the system for beneficial legislation marked much of his congressional efforts, McNulty said. He did the grueling, quiet work of bending bills to suit the greatest number of supporters while benefiting the greatest number of people.

There’s a decidedly Texas bent to Brooks’ story as well. It started with his mentor, former House Speaker Sam Rayburn, and the generations of House members Rayburn influenced: Lyndon Johnson, who later rose to the Senate and the presidency; House speakers Carl Albert, Tip O’Neill, and Jim Wright, Brooks’ contemporary and friend; Brooks and others.

There’s something heroic, too, in his life, including his Marine service in World War II, which McNulty said helped shape him for work in Congress. It was in the Marines, he said, that Brooks learned to negotiate, lead others and to work in the political trenches.

You can get a little closer to the story Thursday. Take that opportunity.