Customer Reviews

Dear First Lady: Letters to the White House

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this book for my 99 year old mother. I thought it would be a good Mother's Day gift. At my Mom's age, she's been familiar with a whole lot of first ladies. I had heard about it on NPR.
I was disappointed with the layout of the book when I opened it. The author's present the original letter (hand written mostly) on the left page, then followed by comments about it starting on the right page and beyond.
What I want prospective buyers to be aware of is - most of these letters are handwritten, and in a lot of cases, very hard to read. I assumed the authors would have transcribed these handwritten letters into type, so they would be easier to read. Some of the letters I couldn't decipher at all. Some are shown on yellowed paper in handwriting from before 1900.
So the 3 star rating is not based on the content of the book, but on the layout.
I'm not sure I'm going to give this book to my Mom now, she might not enjoy it because not knowing what the letters say kind of kills the whole idea.

The wives of American presidents have been impressively diverse in personality and their interpretations of the role of 'First Lady' of the nation. Now for the first time in our political history we have a former First Lady actively seeking to become president in her own right -- which would make her husband, a former president, our unprecedented 'First Gentleman'. "Dear First Lady: Letters To The White House From The Collections Of The Library Of Congress & National Archives" is the collaborative work of Dwight Young (Senior Communications Associate, national Trust for Historic Preservation) and Margaret Johnson (researcher, editor, and author of four previous titles for the National Geographic Society). Profusely illustrated with historic photos and full-size facsimiles of the original correspondences, readers are treated to an informative, intimate 'window' into the lives and concerns of these women and the people who wrote them letters that range from the amusing, to the tragic, to the heartwarming. From British artist John Trumbull informing Martha Washington that is he sending her an engraving of one of his portraits of her husband (which engraving still hangs in Mount Vernon today), to Queen Victoria offering consolation to Mary Todd Lincoln, to a girl with a pen pal in India asking Jacqueline Kennedy if she can accompany the first lady on a trip to that country, to Laura Bush writing a letter to the children of American after 9/11 to reassure them that people love and care about them and are looking out for their safety, "Letters To The White House" is a compendium of bits of heretofore obscure White House history that spans two hundred years. Simply stated, every school and community library should have on their shelves for the benefit of their students and patrons a copy of "Letters To The White House.

This is in response to another reviewer's post. The book DOES include transcriptions of the hard-to-decipher letters--it's in a section towards the back of the book. I highly recommend this book as a gift. I heard about it on NPR too and I am giving it to my grandma as a birthday present. This is a slightly oversized book (somewhere between a coffee table sized and regular sized hardcover) with smooth glossy pages. It looks quite deluxe and all pages are full color. The font is a pleasant size for reading and the layouts are gorgeous. I highly recommend it!

This book is a nice supplement to the very thorough and enjoyable book by Cathy Knepper, Dear Mrs. Roosevelt: Letters to Eleanor Roosevelt Through Depression and War.

Amazon is selling this as a new book, but it is not. It has a remainder mark along the bottom edge of the pages. Shame on them!

HAND WRITING VERY DIFFICULT TO READ..WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE TO HAVE THEM MORE LEGIBLE AS IN TYPE WRITTEN ON OPPOSITE PAGE.