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April 15, 2005
Martin Van Buren
I just completed Ted Widmer’s new biography of President Martin Van Buren , in which he tries to rescue this forgotten president from obscurity and give him much of the credit for creating the modern Democratic party. A tall order, considering that most people probably consider Martin (His enemies called him "Matty") Van Buren about as interesting as paint drying on a wall--if they stop to consider him at all. (I’m sure an expose on Abigail van Buren—“Dear Abbey”—would be far more likely to generate book sales.) But in fact it is a very engaging book, and well worth reading, though Van Buren is a curiously elusive subject.
Mr. Widmer’s book-jacket bio notes his work as an aide to Bill Clinton and the fact that he is a professor of History at Washington College in Maryland, but oddly enough, fails to mention that a) like myself, he is a graduate of the Gordon School in East Providence Rhode Island, or b) he was one of the founders of The Upper Crust, a Boston area punk band whose members appear in baroque dress portraying 18th century Lords. (Widmer, who as far as I know is no longer with the band, was known as Lord Rockingham). It is my pleasure to correct these omissions here.
Posted by rickbeyer at April 15, 2005 08:16 AM
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