Nerd alert.

Last night, I finally embarked on a self-imposed assignment that I have procrastinated for almost a year.  Last night, I finally got cozy with Martin van Buren.

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.