|
Presidential Peccadilloes When Patrick Sauer MPW ’98 put the finishing touches on his book about American presidents in
time for it to hit bookstores before for the 2000 election, he had no idea of how hot the topic was going to get.
“Like most people, I assumed the candidates dictated that the 2000 campaign would be a snoozer, which it was right up until election day,” says Sauer, a freelance writer living in New York City and author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the American Presidents. “Now I’m thinking that maybe I should have written The Idiot’s Guide to the Dimpled Chad.”
Published by Macmillan USA Inc., Sauer’s thorough and sometimes amusing book packs surprising facts, anecdotes and trivia about the lives of presidents from George Washington to Bill Clinton. More importantly, it gives context to the accomplishments of America’s leaders by presenting them, with all of their triumphs and tribulations, as real people facing the issues of the day.
“I think the book is a good resource for the common man. It shows that we’ve had some great leaders but none of them were perfect,” Sauer says. “We’ve also had some very good men who were ineffective in the White House.”
Patrick Sauer has contributed a thorough and amusing volume on American presidents.
|
Using an original ranking system based on professional boxing, Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt earn top honors as “Undisputed Champions.” The rest, with “Too Soon to Tell” nods to George Bush and Clinton, are categorized as “Heavyweights,” “Middle-weights,” “Club Fighters” and “Tomato Cans.”
SAUER'S RESEARCH LED HIM to develop some conversation-provoking lists, including “Ten Choice Nuggets of Presidential Lore.” A sampling:
• Calvin Coolidge got between eight and 10 hours of sleep every night and usually took a two- to four-hour nap during the afternoon, but he needed the rest for his evening cigar, smoked while relaxing on the porch.
• At Andrew Jackson’s inaugural bash, thousands of his hard-drinking consti-tuents treated the executive mansion like a frat house, destroying china and furniture. The refreshments were eventually set on the front lawn and Jackson’s supporters were locked outside.
• Warren G. Harding had two lovers, one the wife of a good friend and the other a woman 31 years his junior. Harding’s favorite spot for trysts was a coat closet near the Oval Office.
Appropriately tongue-in-cheek, Sauer suggests readers ask “not what you can do for The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the American Presidents, but ask what The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the American Presidents can do for you.”
|
|
