First Daughters : Letters Between U.S. Presidents and Their Daughters

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Summary: Dear Dad...
Review: I love letters. No matter if I am sending or receiving them, writing or reading them. I also greatly enjoy reading about the relationships between fathers and daughters. This wonderful compilation of letters exchanged between former U. S. Presidents and their daughters satisfied me on both counts. What a treat it is! The letters are often warm, humorous and utterly charming! They provide an intimate glimpse into the very personal and private side of these most public of American figures and the relationships they shared with their daughters.

Letters written by twenty-one Presidents and their daughters are included here and they cover a wide variety of topics. The book divides these letters by chapter. There are the friendly letters, letters of advice and encouragement, letters about political matters ( which some Presidents discussed in great depth with their daughters) as well as letters about marriage, childbirth and death.

While many Presidents and their daughters are represented here there are a few whose letters stand out above the rest. Those exchanged between John Adams and his daughter Abigail reveal the extremely warm and close bond shared between the two of them. Also, the ones exchanged between Theodore Roosevelt and his daughter Ethel are filled with so much love and reveal a playful and very humorous side to their relationship. Roosevelt frequently added funny sketches to his letters, much to Ethel's delight. Some of the more poignant letters by far are those written by Thomas Jefferson to his daughters, Martha and Mary ( Maria.) Especially endearing is a letter written by Jefferson to Mary as the birth of her second child drew near, a birth that unfortunately would ultimately claim her life.

In addition to the letters themselves the book contains many wonderful old photographs of the Presidents and their daughters and their extended families. Also included are several reproductions of actual letters with gorgeous examples of fine and detailed handwriting. Especially noteworthy in this respect are ones written by Molly Garfield and Ellen Grant.

In this age of the Internet and the convenience of email it is easy to forget that a handwritten letter was once the only means of long distance communication between family members. Letters from fathers to daughters and daughters to fathers were very eagerly looked forward to, as evidenced by the content and tone of the letters in this collection. If you love letters and appreciate the fine but practically lost art of letter writing you will absolutely adore this book! I highly recommend it!


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Summary: A gathering of personal correspondence
Review: Readers interested in first daughters have had relatively little to choose from, with all the attention being given first ladies: the Gawalts remedy this with First Daughters: Letters Between U.S. Presidents And Their Daughters, a gathering of personal correspondence drawing upon thousands of documents from the Library of Congress and Presidential archives alike. Highly recommended reading, the individual letters from Presidential fathers to their daughters are poignant, revealing, and personal: small black and white photos of the family bring each set to life.