In the foreword to this book, James Daugherty tells how these verses came to be written.
"Through the years I have made a lot of illustrations of American themes and have come to know the faces of some of the principal actors in our history—and what faces they are! You know them well yourself: Franklin, Jefferson, Andy Jackson, Dan'l Boone, and Lincoln, above all, to name but a few. These faces have at times seemed so real to me that I have felt that my old studio was haunted and that they had really come to sit for me. While studying every available portrait of such men one does a good deal of reading on the side—biography, and especially the things they wrote and said. And how some of them could write! When you draw really freely, letting the lines go for a walk on their own, they begin to answer each other in a sort of rhythmic dance; and maybe this is what gets me to making up rhymes as I draw. When this happens I sometimes write them down. . . and here they are."
Graphic words, swinging rhythms, and fine, free drawing express bone-deep enjoyment of and affection for the people and places of our history. Great ideas, lovable oddities, salty humor, and colorful folkways—all make this a collection of robust rhymes that promises to be a household treasure for American families.
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