The Wit & Wisdom of the Founding Fathers: Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson

George Washington laughing? That the venerable Father of Our Country, the austere and unfailingly honest leader of historical record and legend, had a penchant for tall tales and crafty quips seems unthinkable to most Americans, even today. In The Wit & Wisdom of the Founding Fathers, historian and scholar Paul Zall shatters the sober image of American icons George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin to reveal - and celebrate - their natural bent for incisive, spirited humor.
With ample quotes from personal correspondence and private memoirs, Zall peers behind the staid and serious facade of our first three presidents and demonstrates how each strove to suppress his sense of mirth to maintain a dignified public reputation. By lifting the curtain on our Founding Fathers as they engage in practical jokes and regale friends with humorous stories, Zall opens a window on their personalities otherwise obscured by our preconceptions of them as larger-than-life historical figures. While Franklin's humor and wisdom is legendary thanks to his authorship of Poor Richard's Almanac, readers will be surprised to learn that Washington had a penchant for biting sarcasm; that Adams engaged in direct, colloquial, even vulgar, humor; and that Jefferson, our most cerebral president, enjoyed laughing at the absurdity of his own situation as leader of the nation.

With a foreword by Roy Blount Jr., Zall (Abe Lincoln Laughing, Univ. of Tennessee, 1995) embarks on an unusual collection of writings and anecdotes from the personal correspondence and private memoirs of the Founding Fathers. Each chapter begins with an introduction to the life of each man in a clear, interesting style, followed by a collection of humorous quotations that add a new dimension to the stern image we have of these personages. The book reveals Franklin's sense of irony as well as his mastery of practical jokes and low puns, Washington's proclivity for telling tall tales, John Adams's pledge to his fiancee to collect more dirty jokes than any of her suitors, and Jefferson's wry sense of humor. Although many of the quotations can be found in other sources, this work draws together only humorous quotations and creates a valuable resource for understanding contemporary issues. Readers with a sense of history who like scholarship lightened with humor will enjoy this book. A welcome addition to school, public, and academic libraries.?Susan Dearstyne, Hudson Valley Community Coll., Albany, N.Y.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.