Buoyed by such reviews in virtually every major newspaper and news-magazine, the ratings for the TV show were double the usual PBS scores. An average of 5,000,000 Americans were at their sets each night. Almost all the PBS stations were so impressed they ran the show again during their pledge weeks. Channel 13, our local outlet, ran it three times -- proof of its pulling power.
Tom Fleming's companion volume of the same title has had an equally enthusiastic reception. Amazon.com, the Internet book store, declared it ``one of the best books on the Revolution in years.'' They admired Tom's ``lucid'' prose and closed with praise for the way the book ``surges with the human drama that gave life and substance to the Revolution.'' Publisher's Weekly's review applauded virtually everything about the book, from the incisive portraits of British and loyalist leaders to the vivid battle scenes. Douglas Brinkley, the director of the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans, said Liberty! was ``brimming with memorable anecdotes and fresh historical insights. It is that rare essential book that belongs in every school and home.'' The History Book Club, which made Liberty! their main selection for November, ranked it as one of the eight best books of the year. The Book of the Month Club, who chose it for their main selection in December, were so pleased with the results, they ran a special insert in their January catalogue, again featuring the book, declaring it ``gives historical fact all the drama of historical fiction.''
As of Christmas Day, the publisher, Penguin-Putnam, had shipped 143,689 copies.
We're History Too
The Round Table has some history of its own to celebrate. Your
Chairman recently discovered in his files a yellowed clip of a three
column story in the New York Times about reporter William Farrell's
visit to the Round Table, written in 1980.
It is a very admiring piece, rife with Round Table conversation. Mr. Farrel quotes former chairman Ed Mills defending George III as a very nice much misunderstood man. Margaret Maguire denounces wastrel German nobles in the course of reviewing a book on the Hessians.
Farrel meditates on the suitability of Fraunces Tavern as our meeting place. He praises the speaker, John C. Dann, author of The Revolution Remembered. (Based on pension records of the war, as of course, everyone recalls.) Dann gave us the sort of forgotten details Round Tablers love -- that Lafayette drank only goat's milk, that Washington once loaned his telescope to a foot soldier.
As we approach our 40th Anniversary celebration in October, let's look for more such memorabilia.
A Boston Gripe Party
The American Hospital Association News recently ran a photo of
doctors, nurses and medical workers dumping boxes of hospital annual
reports into Boston harbor on Dec. 2, 1997, to protest ``market
driven'' health care. They hurled the despised documents off the
replica of the tea ship docked in the port to make sure people got the
point.
What's next, a Continental Congress demanding a national health
program? Stay tuned.
The Treasurer's Tidbit Treat
Congratulations to ARRT member James A. Dolan who correctly answered
the December 1997 Trivia treat. He was ``treated'' by our treasurer
to dinner that night.
Mr. Dolan's answers were:
Who were the signers of the Declaration of Independence who were born in Massachusetts?
The first three persons who submit the correct answer to Jim at the
Feb. 3 meeting will be treated to a before dinner spirit (from the
treasurer's private funds, of course!).
The Treasurer's Tidbit
The musical 1776 has again entered the Broadway scene. The winner
of several Tony Awards, it is an enjoyable if not historically
accurate portrayal of the politics leading to the Declaration of
Independence. I can live with a reduced Congress; acting salaries are
high. But I have always been greatly annoyed by the show's portrayal
of James Wilson, delegate from Pennsylvania.
If one is to believe the plot, Mr. Wilson is a spineless coward, always in the shadow and dominance of John Dickinson, unable to understand Congressional procedures, and only supporting the Declaration because he does not wish to be remembered as the man who prevented American independence.
None of the above is true. James Wilson wrote a 6,000 word address presenting the case for independence to the public; Thomas Paine's Common Sense was just better theater. Wilson became on on only six men to sign both the Declaration and the Constitution. He is considered, next to James Madison, to be the most important member of the drafting committee for the latter document.
Wilson served as the University of Pennsylvania's first law professor and was appointed an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
I don't know why Wilson's contribution to the American Revolution is so poorly presented in 1776. Perhaps because he is not a major figure in the modern public mind, the authors thought they could get away with it. Possibly at the Gershwin Theater they can. At Fraunces Tavern they cannot.
*****
Recently Jeopardy had a ``Famous Last Words'' category. One answer was ``Thomas Jefferson still survives.'' The question was: ``Who was John Adams?'' As most Round Tablers know, in a strange twist of fate, Adams and Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Not so many know the story does not end there. Exactly five years later, on July 4, 1831, James Monroe died. Five years later, it was James Madison's turn. On June 28, 1836 Madison lay dying at Montpelier. His doctor, a student of history, told him that he could keep him alive with drugs for six more days so that he could join his fellow ex-presidents in a July 4th demise and keep the streak going. Madison said thanks but no thanks and died quietly in his sleep that night.
The Latest from The Landmark Maven
Once again let us follow in the size 12 footsteps of our favorite
founding father. If you want to know how ye olde maven came up with
that shoe size, the next time you are in the city of Richmond, pa a
visit to the standing stature of the Great Man by Houdon, in the
Virginia State House. Study those feet and dare try to tell me that
Himself wore size sevens. You can also learn from studying other
aspects of this statue that the Father of all us Revolutionaries was
definitely not a size 42 at Barney's or any place else.
Which gets us in somewhat circuitous fashion back to landmarks. Let us thank our sisters, the Daughters of the Revolution, for this one. Just north of the intersection of Montague Street and the Brooklyn Heights promenade is a modest little plaque. Next time you are in the neighborhood take a leisurely stroll along the promenade. Standing there on the heights above the Brooklyn docks, you can gaze over the harbor from Governors Island past Lady Liberty and beyond the ``handmade'' bridge, and realize that this was once a battlefield, one where we lost. The plaque informs us that this is this is ``the land upon which stood Four Chimneys, the house used by General Washington as headquarters during the battle of Long Island in which the Council of War was held August 29, 1776 when it was decided to withdraw the American Army from Long Island.'' A few weeks later, after the rout at Kips Bay, the site and the rest of modern New York City became occupied territory, saddled with not one but two foreign armies -- the British and the German. It was not exactly fun city.
More about the Great East River Suspension aka Brooklyn Bridge and digging up our revolutionary past in the next communique.
George Washington Signed Here
One never knows where George Washington will turn up. Recently a
worker archiving some records in Ansonia, Connecticut, public library
came across two framed documents bearing the signatures of Washington
and Thomas Jefferson. One document is a land survey signed by
Washington in 1750. The other is a presidential ``ship's paper'' used
for identification by the ship's captain. It proclaims Stephen Stone
of Baltimore to be captain of the schooner Sark. It has President
Washington's signature and also Jefferson's. He was Secretary of
State at the time. The land survey is valued at about $15,000 and the
ship's paper will sell for between $10,000 and $12,000, experts say.
Not a bad day's work for the Ansonia archivist. Let's hope he or she
gets a cut of the take, at least.