Title: Breakfast at the Hermitage
Author: Alfred Leland Crabb
Year Published: 1945
Year Printed: 1945
Date Acquired: December 20, 2014
Where Purchased: The Hermitage Gift Shop, Hermitage, TN
Price Paid: $105
Read Status: Read (July 16, 2015)
Notes/Thoughts
- Signed by author
- Has book jacket
- I had already got a book for this trip at a used bookstore in Nashville, but I had to look through the rare books they had in the gift shop when I saw them to see if there were any 1940s editions. I still wasn't going to get it when I found it because of the price, but Mom decided to still get it for me as a Christmas present. Probably was overpriced, but it is signed by author without being to someone specific and it has the book jacket. Plus, since I bought it at The Hermitage it definitely fits being about the local area even though it is an historical fiction novel.
- It took a little while to get into this book, but this turned out to be quite an interesting historical fiction novel about Nashville and architecture, preservation and continuing the tradition of beautiful homes.
- “Once I dreamed I was at the Capitol and a lot of men wanted me to be governor, but I outran them. Lucky I did, too.”
“Lucky? How was that lucky?”
“I’d be dead now. You ever read in a history book about a governor that’s still alive?” (p. 101)
- “So did I, but he does it almost too well. To keep alive the comradeship, that is well; but to make us wish we were back in the war, that is not well. We lost the war; we mustn’t lose anything else.” (p. 102)
- “Mrs. Jackson thinks the Hermitage can become the Mount Vernon of the South." (p. 175) - Um, isn't Mount Vernon in the South?
Title: Rivers of America: The Tennessee, Volume I - The Old River: Frontier to Secession
Author: Donald Davidson
Year Published: 1946
Year Printed: 1946
Date Acquired: December 20, 2014
Where Purchased: BookManBookWoman Books, Nashville, TN
Price Paid: $28.95
Read Status: Read (May 5, 2015)
Notes/Thoughts
Title: Reveille in Washington
Author: Margaret Leech
Year Published: 1941
Year Printed: 1941
Date Acquired: December 11, 2014
Where Purchased: City Center Gallery & Books, Fayetteville, NC
Price Paid: $5
Read Status: Read (April 7, 2015)
Notes/Thoughts
- For months I've been meaning to get a D.C. book for my collection, but I meant to do that as a quick metro trip from home. So much for trying to diversify my collection from being so Virginia/D.C. area dominant by stopping in another state this road trip. However, somehow I have managed to have the first seven books printed in seven different years.
- I found the Ladies in Durance chapter particularly interesting as it tells about Mrs. Greenbow and other Confederate spies imprisoned in D.C. during the war.
- The description of Mary Todd Lincoln's half-sister's visit was also quite interesting as Emili Helm was a rebel. (p. 306-7).
Title: F.D.R. My Boss
Author: Grace Tully
Year Published: 1949
Year Printed: 1949
Date Acquired: December 11, 2014
Where Purchased: City Center Galley & Books, Fayetteville, NC
Price Paid: $6
Read Status: Read (January 28, 2015)
Notes/Thoughts
- I did have to go beyond the local interest section to find a 1940s edition book this time and I was really trying to get beyond having so much related to where we live (D.C. area), but at the same time this and the other book (Reveille in Washington, 1860-65) I picked up seemed too interesting to not get.
- This book provides an interesting perspective from a secretary to F.D.R. from when he was a nominee for Governor of New York in 1928 through his death in 1945, especially since it focuses more on the day to day (daily routine, basic thoughts on cabinet members) than the big events.
- When talking about the Farley-Roosevelt falling out, which seems to have been mostly related to FDR running for a third term, Tully attributes it partially to Farley knowing he would be unable to become President, but had some triple play plan to become Vice President. (p. 182) She clearly says it's just her conjecture and I automatically considered it entirely improbable because she basically explains it being a complex plan because a Roosevelt-Farley ticket was impossible due the Constitution not allowing the President and Vice President to be from the same state. Well, considering how much I have been reading about Virginia and many early Presidents/Vice Presidents were both from Virginia, I figured that could not possibly be true. However, I thought maybe it was in the amendments and ended up coming across this Snopes article that explains the misconception that Tully had is actually quite common even among recent selection of running mates.
