Posterity - Letters of Great Americans to Their Children

Zusatztext “Each letter has a distinct tone! from congratulatory to scolding! which shines a light on one facet of each great American’s personality. A one-of-a-kind collection.” — Library Journal “Years ago! parents wrote to their children letters of instruction about duty! industry! propriety—a ritual that has largely disappeared from American life! and this book reminds us of why we should be sorry about it.” — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Informationen zum Autor Dorie McCollough Lawson Klappentext An elegantly designed, beautifully composed volume of personal letters from famous American men and women that celebrates the American Experience and illuminates the rich history of some of America's most storied families. Posterity is at once an epistolary chronicle of America and a fascinating glimpse into the hearts and minds of some of history's most admired figures and storied families. Spanning more than three centuries, these letters contain enduring lessons-in life, love, character and compassion-that will surprise and enlighten. Included here are letters from Thomas Jefferson to his daughter, warning her of the evils of debt; General Patton on D-Day to his son, a cadet at West Point, about what it means to be a good soldier; W.E.B. Du Bois to his daughter about character beneath the color of skin; Oscar Hammerstein about why, after all his success, he doesn't stop working; Woody Guthrie, writing from a New Jersey asylum, to nine-year-old Arlo about universal human frailty; Eleanor Roosevelt chastising her grown son for his Christmas plans; and Groucho Marx as a dog to his twenty-five-year-old son. Here are renowned Americans in their own words and in their own times, seen as they were seen by their children. Here are our great Americans as mothers and fathers. Leseprobe William Henry Seward to William Henry Seward, Jr. "How good and virtuous and just ought we to be and how thankful to God that we have blessings secured by the virtue and sufferings of our ancestors." One of the most important political figures of the mid-nineteenth century, William Henry Seward was governor of New York, then senator, then secretary of state under Abraham Lincoln. As a leading voice in the condemnation of slavery, it was he who delivered the courageous line on the floor of the Senate evoking a "higher law." Later, in 1867, it was Seward, the ever devoted proponent of American expansion and progress, who secured the purchase of Alaska for the United States. With thick, disheveled hair and a prominent nose, Seward, according to Henry Adams, looked like a "wise macaw." Charming and relaxed, he was a welcomed guest and a favorite among the Washington hostesses. In the fall of 1848, he was running for the first time for a seat in the United States Senate. He campaigned in his home state, New York, and traveled about the East Coast speaking on behalf of the Republican Party. Here, with his characteristic broad sense of time, William Seward, the grandson of a Revolutionary War colonel, writes to his son Willie, a nine-year-old boy at home with persistent eye troubles. [October 7, 1848] Wilmington in the State of Delaware, Monday My dear Boy I am very much obliged to you for your letter which gives me much interesting information. I will try to procure in New York a filter which will purify the water of the new pump. I have been at many places in Pennsylvania where I wished that you were strong enough to be with me. When you grow strong enough I shall want you to travel with me. I saw on the banks of the Schuylkill, Valley Forge the place where General Washington had his camp during one of the most severe winters which occurred during the American Revolution. His camp extended four miles long with two entrenchments in front and high mountains on the one side and a deep cre...

Product details

• Authors: Dorie McCullough Lawson
• Publisher: Anchor Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 22.04.2008
• EAN: 9780767909044
• ISBN: 978-0-7679-0904-4
• No. of pages: 336
• Dimensions: 130 mm x 203 mm x 18 mm
• Subject: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Biographies, autobiographies