For many Americans, George Washington is just the face on a dollar bill. This book changes that perception. George Washington, Revolutionary War general, Founding Father, and first President of the United States was a warm and fascinating person. He suffered the agony of adolescent passion, fell in love with his best friend's wife, and married his friend Martha Custis. He poured out his political and military woes to his brother Jack in the dark days of 1776, and, in the midst of a miserable winter camped with his troops in Valley Forge, wrote a chatty letter to a friend in England. All these incidents are here in Washington's own words. Only through what Washington called his "letters of friendship" can we fully understand this complex man. They show him joking with his favorite Frenchman, the Marquis de Lafayette, advising his younger relatives on love and marriage, writing with emotion to the unobtainable woman he loved, and reconnecting with her in his old age. Selected and edited by New York Times bestselling author and historian Thomas Fleming from the thirty-seven volumes of Washington's collected writings, this book will be a revelation to all.
Author
Librarian note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name Thomas James Fleming was an historian and historical novelist, with a special interest in the American Revolution. He was born in 1927 in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of a World War I hero who was a leader in Jersey City politics for three decades. Before her marriage, his mother, Katherine Dolan Fleming, was a teacher in the Jersey City Public School System. After graduating from St. Peter's Preparatory School in Jersey City, Fleming spent a year in the United States Navy. He received a Bachelor's degree, with honors, from Fordham University in 1950. After brief stints as a newspaperman and magazine editor, he became a full-time writer in 1960. His first history book, Now We Are Enemies, an account of the Battle of Bunker Hill, was published that same year. It was a best-seller, reviewed in more than 75 newspapers and featured as a main selection of the Literary Guild. Fleming published books about various events and figures of the Revolutionary era. He also wrote about other periods of American history and wrote over a dozen well-received novels set against various historical backgrounds. He said, "I never wanted to be an Irish American writer, my whole idea was to get across that bridge and be an American writer". Fleming died at his home in New York City on July 23, 2017, at the age of 90.
