Saturday, June 21, 2008

William Cullen Bryant again!

now I'm reading Anything For A Vote Dirty Tricks, Cheap Shots, and October Surprises in U.S. Presidential Campaigns by Joseph Cummins.
I always check the index first: old habit. William Cullen Bryant is mentioned twice.
On President William Henry Harrison's death: Poet William Cullen Bryant said he regretted Harrison's death only because "he did not live long enough to prove his incapacity for the office of President."
Ulysses S. Grant vs. Horace Greely Presidential campaign.
William Cullen Bryant decided that the only reason for Greeley's nomination was that "bodies of men as individuals sometimes lose their wits."

Thursday, June 19, 2008

William Cullen Bryant

Anyone who has suffered thru trying to read the genealogy book I sometimes work on knows of my fascination with William Cullen Bryant: newspaper editor, poet, & distant cousin. (If memory serves me correctly, he was a great uncle to Mary Alice Bryant Higdon McMican, who would be my great-great grandma...)
The rough draft on my old computer has files upon files of William Cullen Bryant facts, trivia, things I have found & read about him. I have bought several of his books of poetry & biographies about him. It is somewhat of an obsession.
Anyway, I often spot his name when I read Lincoln books (another of my obsessions. Long story.) I was reading Appendix 1 Mary Todd Lincoln Letters in The Madness of Mary Lincoln by James Emerson. And there it is, a reference to good old William.
I won't quote it, copyright laws & all, but here's the gist of it...

she's on a riverboat ride with three or four choice Philadelphia friends
with scenery such as is seldom met in this world such pens as W.C. Bryant and others have given minute details of the voyage...

Saturday, June 14, 2008

another licenced driver joins the ranks

KJ Dailey rec'd his Intermediate Drivers License July 12 2008 in Trenton, MO!