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New Books for Collectors
— July 2009The United States Presidents Illustrated
by Robert M. Reed
Reviewed by Robert Reed
(Antique and Collectible News Service)
All of America’s Presidents from Washington to Obama are featured in the newly released United States Presidents Illustrated by Robert M. Reed.
Every president from the first to the most recent is presented through a series of nearly more than 400 postcards, engravings, newspapers, premium cards, official White House photographs and vintage magazine illustrations. The colorful volume includes highlights of presidential lives, their wives, their times and the political climate of the day. This is Reed’s 16th published book.
Facts from this richly illustrated volume:
• First president to be born a citizen of the United States was Martin Van Buren in 1782. All those who had served before him were technically born as British citizens.
• William Henry Harrison was the first president to die while in office. President Harrison had served only 32 days when he died in 1841.
• Calvin Coolidge was the only American President to be born on the Fourth of July. Two other presidents actually died on the Fourth of July.
• President John Tyler fathered the most children of an American President. During the course of his life he was married twice and had a total of 15 children.
• The poorest president was actually Andrew Johnson. At age 13 he was apprenticed to a tailor as basically an indentured servant. He was the only American president to serve without any formal education.
• The first president to be born into the 20th century was John Kennedy. He was born on May 19, 1917.
• First Lady Lucy Hayes, the wife of President Rutherford Hayes, was known as “Lemonade Lucy” during her 19th century days in the Washington. She forbid the serving of liquor in the White House.
• Lucky was the name of a dog owned by President Ronald Reagan and Mrs. Reagan. The sheepdog puppy even posed for an official White House photograph. However he was not so lucky around the White House. He grew so huge he was “farmed” out to the Reagan ranch in California.
The United States Presidents Illustrated by Robert M. Reed, 144 pages and 480 color illustrations, index, is $24.99 plus shipping from Schiffer Publishing, 4880 Lower Valley Rd., Atglen, PA 19310. Also available in bookstores and on the Internet.
The Glorious Fourth of July: Old-Fashioned Treats and Treasures from America’s Patriotic Past
by Diane Arkins
Reviewed by Robert Reed
(Antique and Collectible News Service)
American life was certainly different around a century ago, as were all of the county’s annual Fourth of July celebrations. Much of it magically reappears again through the pages of The Glorious Fourth of July by Diane Arkins.
The author calls it “a virtual scrapbook of mementoes and memories of the merry ways of the nation’s birthday was celebrated in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Filled with evocative images of patriotic memorabilia, period photographs, and colorful examples of artistically illustrated postcards of the era, the book presents a collection of July 4 entertainments a they originally appeared.”
Vintage postcards were proudly distributed at a time in America where neighborhoods trimmed their treetops with flags and bunting, and drew together for united merrymaking.
Included in the nostalgic but noble book are vivid accounts of century-old celebrations along with contemporaneous suggestions for party games and other Fourth of July-related amusements.
The Glorious Fourth of July: Old-Fashioned Treats and Treasures from America’s Patriotic Past by Diane Arkins, 112 pages and 138 color illustrations is $19.95 plus shipping from Pelican Publishing Company, 1-800-843-1724. It is also available in bookstores and on Internet outlets.
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