American Characters: Selections from the National Portrait Gallery, Accompanied by Literary Portraits

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Summary: Famous and infamous American characters
Review: The National Portrait Gallery is now closed for renovation, but this book provides a peek at this museum of personalities. The expected hero's are here like Jefferson, Lincoln, and Robert Frost, but so are the uniquely American villains like Al Capone and Jesse James. Each of the 160 full page portraits is preceded by a paragraph giving a brief biography, and, more interestingly, a quote by the person portrayed or a revealing paragraph from another American figure. For example for Al Capone he states "I've been spending the best years of my life as a public benefactor. I've given people the light pleasures, shown them a good time". These characters are often interrelated, as Thomas Jefferson talks of John Adams, and Emerson writes in his journals about Daniel Webster. The arts are well represented also, and America's contributions to music include portraits of Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, W.C Handy, and George Gershwin (in a unique self portrait). This book also gives a glimpse of the history of portraiture including paintings, daguerreotypes, and photographs. In the case of Matthew Brady, there are both photographs by him, and of him. Very enjoyable book to browse!