Posterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children

"Lawson, daughter of Pulitzer Prize — winning historian David McCullough, debuts with this anthology. Along with advice and words of wisdom, these letters offer intimate insights into the lives of 68 acclaimed Americans — actors, artists, explorers, inventors, novelists, playwrights, politicians — including Ansel Adams, Thomas Edison, Sam Houston, Mary Todd Lincoln, Jack London, Clare Boothe Luce, Groucho Marx, John O'Hara, Frederick Law Olmsted, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Laura Ingalls Wilder. The material is gathered thematically into chapters such as 'Love,' 'Loss' and 'Struggle,' and each correspondent gets a biographical, scene-setting introduction. Lawson views letters as 'the color, heart, and personality of history,' and McCullough, in his foreword, calls them 'missives of love,' adding, 'Often the authors want only to save their children from making the mistakes they have.' Among these colorful and compassionate epistles are delights and surprises. While Alexander Graham Bell copied jokes from newspapers, the Three Stooges' Moe Howard composed poetry for his eight-year-old daughter. Suffering in a New Jersey hospital, Woody Guthrie told nine-year-old Arlo, 'Don't whine to god.... Be thankenful [sic] to god.' Illustrator N.C. Wyeth cautioned Andrew Wyeth: 'There's a real task on our hands, Andy. Modern art critics and their supine followers like the flat and the shallow.' Spanning three centuries, this is a meticulously edited collection, enlightening and entertaining. An appendix traces births, death, marriages and children for each author. Agent, Luke Janklow. (On sale Apr. 13) Forecast: The April publication date positions this as an ideal graduation gift, and the elegant jacket design, combining penmanship and a postage stamp, cleverly communicates the contents to book buyers." Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"In our age of e-mail and other disposable bits of communication, a book of carefully composed personal letters is a rare treat. [A] beautiful volume, masterfully edited by Lawson....A one-of-a-kind collection." Library Journal

In the tradition of Letters of the Century, this rich collection of letters 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.

A treasury of personal letters from famous Americans to their children features theme-arranged lessons on such topics as love, character, and aging by such individuals as Frederick Douglass, Albert Einstein, Groucho Marx, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Dorie McCullough Lawson graduated from Middlebury College, where she majored in history. She works and lives in Rockport, Maine with her husband and three children. This is her first book.

William Henry Seward — Elizabeth Cady Stanton — Albert Einstein — John D. Rockefeller, Jr. — Ansel Adams — Henry Louis Gates, Jr. — John Adams — Alexander Graham Bell — Jack London — Lincoln Steffens — Eugene O'Neill — N.C. Wyeth — William O. Douglas — Thomas Jefferson — Sam Houston — Salmon P. Chase — Alfred Thayer Mahan — Washington A. Roebling — Theodore Roosevelt — Richard E. Byrd — Sherwood Anderson — Eugene O'Neill — N.C. Wyeth — Clare Boothe Luce — John Steinbeck — John Adams — John James Audubon — Charles W. Eliot — Frederick Law Olmsted — John D. Rockefeller — Sherwood Anderson — Eugene O'Neill — F. Scott Fitzgerald — Laura Ingalls Wilder — N.C. Wyeth — George Patton, Jr. — Thomas Jefferson — Abigail Adams — George Catlin — William James — John J. Pershing — Carl Sandburg — William Carlos Williams — Woody Guthrie — Hume Cronyn — John Steinbeck — Anne Sexton — Jonathan Edwards — Abigail Adams — Thomas Jefferson — Daniel Webster — William Lloyd Garrison — Sidney Lanier — Theodore Roosevelt — W.E.B. Du Bois — John O'Hara — John Adams — Mark Twain — Frederick Law Olmsted — Sidney Lanier — William James — Alexander Graham Bell — Theodore Roosevelt — John D. Rockefeller — Moe Howard — Groucho Marx — Thomas Jefferson — Mary Todd Lincoln — Thomas Edison — Theodore Roosevelt — Jack London — John J. Pershing — Eugene O'Neill — F. Scott Fitzgerald — Eleanor Roosevelt — George Washington — Benjamin Franklin — Herman Melville — Sam Houston — Richard E. Byrd — Lincoln Steffens — Harry S. Truman — John Quincy Adams — Daniel Webster — Frederick Douglass — Harriet Beecher Stowe — Robert E. Lee — Mark Twain — Woodrow Wilson — William Lloyd Garrison — Harriet Beecher Stowe — Frederick Law Olmsted — William Dean Howells — N.C. Wyeth — Oscar Hammerstein — M.F.K. Fisher — George Herbert Walker Bush — Anne Bradstreet — Benjamin Franklin — Benjamin and Julia Rush — John D. Rockefeller, Jr. — F. Scott Fitzgerald — Eddie Rickenbacker — Barbara Bush.