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| Be still my heart. |
About six years ago, Erin and I made a pact to read a biography of each president, starting with George Washington on down. Erin quickly abandoned our agreement, but I forged ahead. In 2009, I read His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis, John Adams by David McCullough, and American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph Ellis again. Then, faced with the incredible 760-page hulk, James Madison: A Biography by Ralph Ketcham, given to me by Uncle Pat, I took a three-year hiatus from the project in order to pursue other interests, like getting a boyfriend. In 2013, I was ready to dive back in. I tackled and defeated James Madison. Invigorated by my victory, I went backwards in time to read ANOTHER book about Thomas Jefferson—Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham. In 2014, I read The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness by Harlow Giles Unger, who would have you believe that James Monroe single-handedly won the American Revolution. I will not be reading any more biographies by Harlow Giles Unger. I then read John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, A Private Life by Paul Nagel and finished out the year with American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham.
After Andrew Jackson, I
peered out over a long stretch of boring until Abraham Lincoln. But, as a later president once said at
Rice University, “We do not do these things because they are easy—we do them
because they are hard.” And
actually, I’m lying when I say I’m bored by the idea of reading about these
dudes (why would I do this to myself if that were the case??). Martin van Buren (MVB, as I will
affectionately call him from here onward) gets a lot of airtime in American
Lion, and definitely piqued my
interest. I’m also looking forward
to the John Tyler presidency (annexation of Texas, baby!).
So I researched which
MVB biography to read, and as it turns out, there are not too many
options. The only people reading
about him are reading a biography on every president. The only people writing about him are doing a deep dive for
some obscure dissertation. My options
were the 700-page version or the 500-page version. Not that I don’t want to give MVB a fair shake, but I went
with the 500-pager. Hopefully I
can still get the full picture. I
will report back when I am done.
I’m sure you are all
curious as to my assessments of the presidents I have read so far (that is, if
you haven’t already had the joy of hearing me discuss them in person). It’s bedtime here, so I will have to
save that for another post. I will
leave you with the man of the hour, MVB.
He was supposedly quite the snappy dresser in his younger years.
