A Memoir by Barbara Bush

Barbara Pierce Bush (1925-2018) was a wife, mother, homemaker, and, as the cards were dealt, a distinguished First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993.  Engaged to George H. W. Bush during World War II and married at 19, she was a military bride for the first months of her marriage until the War ended.  Their first child, George W., was born while the couple was at Yale University as George H.W. completed his undergraduate degree. Then began the sometimes-wild ride that finally led to the White House. All this and the former First Lady wasn’t even a college graduate!  Once married, she never returned to Smith College.  Throughout her life, she declared family, faith and friends as her priorities.

Barbara Bush grew up in Rye, New York in what sounds like a normal middle-class family whose affluence and status may have increased as her father’s career progressed; he eventually became president of the McCall Corporation.   Besides some famous Pierce ancestors and her father’s friendship with Red Blaik, there was little about her upbringing that approached anything more than what would have been the customary privileges and social graces of a family who lived in a pleasant suburb of New York City in the 30s and 40s. 

Mrs. Bush seemed able to manage any challenge that came her way.  She could turn sows’ ears into silk purses, or, if not silk, at least prevail and get the job done.  As someone who accepted life as it was handed to her, Mrs. Bush was a realist.  She frequently and freely acknowledged her wonderful family, husband and children and her overall good fortune in life.  She was not unaware of who she was and how her life stacked up against others not so fortunate.  Though not one to anguish over the torments of her inner soul, she was capable of reflection and self-analysis and her writing in this memoir is warm, honest and very entertaining.

The book recounts in detail the early years of married life in Midland and then Houston, as H.W. built up his career in the oil industry. Adventures along the way were sometimes sad (as the sudden death of her mother in a car accident) and sometimes humorous (life in tiny apartments sharing bathrooms with other families), but there were always plenty of friends along the way and plenty of family support for her five children (largely from the Bush side). Events were also tragic; during these early years, Barbara and George Bush lost their second child, a daughter, Robin, to leukemia at the tender age of 4.  Mrs. Bush devotes a chapter to Robin though she is mentioned throughout the book.

When George Bush won a seat in the House of Representatives, the family moved to Washington, D.C. and from there to NYC for his job as Ambassador to the UN. Mr. Bush then served as Chair of the Republican National Committee during the Watergate years.   Next it was off to China as U.S. envoy during the Ford administration, back to D.C. for Mr. Bush’s time as Director of the CIA.  A solid eight years followed living in the nation’s capital as Vice President and Second Lady during the Reagan administration.  Then came the White House years, years that both George and Barbara Bush clearly treasured.   

As First Lady, indeed throughout H.W.’s political career, Barbara Bush was consistent and thoughtful about her public role.  Her reasoning was that the issues of the day were not hers to publicly pontificate upon; she had not been elected to office. As she put it, her priorities were her children and husband and went on to explain “Abortion pro or con, is not a priority for me.  ERA is not a priority for me, nor is gun control.  I leave that for those courageous enough to run for public office.  Educating a young girl early that she has a choice to wait before she has a relationship with a boy is a priority for me.”  She went on to list equality among all people and feeding and housing the poor as among her priorities.

The issue she took on as First Lady was literacy.  She traveled, gave speeches, visited schools and hospitals and promoted her cause with thoroughness.  She accompanied the president on endless trips. She was hostess, diplomat, friend to countless public figures, and I don’t think any two people could have had more friends in more places than George and Barbara Bush.  Nor did anyone keep a more intense pace of work, play, travel, golf, boating and family activities.

Barbara Bush follows the familiar pattern of public persons who recap their careers once out of the limelight.  As with most of these memoirs, the early chapters are the most engaging because they are the least formulaic. Not so in Mrs. Bush’s case.  Her memoir remains fresh and candid throughout. She describes what life was like as a congressional wife, as Second Lady of the land and everything in between.  Once in the White House she recounts, without the least rancor or regret, how her private life ceased to exist. She gives an insider narrative of her husband’s Inauguration Day.   She takes the reader into her White House office and daily routines.  She describes, with behind-the-scene details,  weekends at Walker’s Point and Camp David which might include children, grandchildren and dignitaries at the same time. 

She offers her opinions about any number of people, usually positive, though there was that little glitch with Geraldine Ferraro.  Neither, during the UN years in New York, did she have any kind words for Mayor John Lindsay.  Otherwise, it is all “a darling young woman,” “a lovely creature,” “the most wonderful friends, we love them.”  Given the international politics of the day, Mrs. Bush was frequently paired up with, among others, Raisa Gorbachev and Denis Thatcher. With Mrs. Gorbachev, Barbara Bush finally cuts through the “red” tape and comes to understand and have a fondness for her.  Of Denis Thatcher she says, he “…played it just right, in my eyes.  He was supportive of Margaret always, and yet had a life of his own.”  For both Bushes, their relationship with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada and his wife Mila extended well beyond the political.

Mrs. Bush writes about her family also, but without invading terribly personal spaces.  The death of little Robin has been mentioned.  Mrs. Bush seems to have had good relationships with her siblings. Jeb’s marriage to Columba was perhaps a bit of a surprise to the family and maybe took some special attention.  Son Marvin had rather severe health problems as an adult and Neil was raked over the coals and financially ruined by the S&L “scandal.”  Daughter Doro was divorced with two small children until meeting her current husband who was a welcome addition to the family. George W. had not yet run for governor of Texas and he and Laura were often not geographically close by especially during the Washington, D.C. years.  Barbara Bush remained very much a mother through the years. 

This book may not be for everyone, particularly those looking for a substantive discussion of issues or wanting another perspective on Bush 41 and his years in office.  It may, in point of fact, be more of a woman’s book.  However, do not take that to mean that it is all emotion or chatter. The Bush family is not that and neither is Barbara Bush.  She’s a grounded individual, articulate and thoughtful, gregarious like her husband and with a flair for finding the best in people and the best in a situation. As she put it, “…you have two choices in life.  You can like it or not.  I chose to like it.”

I found the book to be really good reading. Plenty of pictures, too!   

Paul Revere and the World He Lived In by Esther Forbes

 

He said to his friend, “If the British march

By land or sea from the town tonight,

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch

Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--

One, if by land, and two, if by sea;

And I on the opposite shore will be,

Ready to ride and spread the alarm

Through every Middlesex village and farm, 

For the country folk to be up and to arm.”

…..Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

His friend was Robert Newman and Paul Revere was in fact not on the opposite shore when Newman climbed the North Church tower to hang the lanterns.  Revere was still in Boston and he had so quickly hastened off to await the signal that he forgot his spurs and some scraps of clothing to muffle the oars as he made his way across the Charles River.  Nor did Revere make it to “every Middlesex village and farm;” he was captured by the British outside of Lexington. 

 Paul Revere---accomplished silversmith, coppersmith and engraver; early industrialist and Yankee innovator; husband to Sara Orne and then Rachel Walker, father of sixteen; Bostonian, Mason and a Son of Liberty---is portrayed admiringly, colorfully and with a devotion to historical accuracy in this wonderful book by Esther Forbes.

Paul Revere began life with a baptismal date of January 1, 1735.  He was named after his father Apollos Rivoire, a French Huguenot immigrant who landed in Boston as a young man and was apprenticed to John Coney a silversmith.  Apollos soon changed his name to something the British colonists could more easily handle and Paul Revere he was. 

Paul Revere, fils, grew up in a typical colonial household, went to North Writing School (a writing school as opposed to a Latin or grammar school which would have prepared him for scholarly life), worked in his father’s shop, briefly went off to fight in the French and Indian Wars and became head of household at age 19 when his father died.  Revere grew to be a man of integrity, common sense, pluck and not a small amount of ingenuity.

Well before his midnight ride Revere, perhaps unlike most of his fellow craftsmen, was included in various patriot clubs of Boston who were debating and fomenting rebellion.  His inclusion was a bit unusual as he was neither intellectual nor a gentleman of the educated class.  Forbes explains: “Paul was admitted to their society because they wished the sympathy of the large artisan class with whom he was immensely popular….” (p 56)  Paul Revere was also a do-er, a man with an even temperament and a steady head. 

His famous midnight ride was one of several such journeys Revere had already made.  His first was in November 1773 preceding the Tea Party when Revere rode to nearby seaports to advise that the British ships laden with their trunks of tea might discharge their cargo.  After the Tea Party Revere made, according to Forbes, four trips to Philadelphia.  She writes: “If one estimates the mileage from Boston to Philadelphia as three hundred and fifty at that time, his rate was about sixty-three miles a day…..”  (p. 206)  Not bad!  Revere made another famous ride when he took the Suffolk Resolves written by his good friend Dr. Joseph Warren to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. (Revere named one of his younger sons after Dr. Warren who died in the Battle of Bunker Hill.)

As we follow Revere’s life, our author brings us along through the Stamp Act rebellion, The Boston Massacre (to which Revere’s contribution was printing the famous engraving that erroneously portrayed what happened), The Boston Tea Party (Revere was most certainly a participant though no records exist), his famous midnight ride and the Battles of Lexington and Concord (Revere never actually fought in either battle).  We follow the First Continental Congress as it convenes in Philadelphia and the second Congress that appoints Washington as Commander of the Continental Army.  We read of Washington’s arrival in Boston after the Battle of Bunker Hill.  Forbes does not fight the Revolution for us but skips ahead as Boston picks up the pieces after it was under siege and plundered by the British.  We catch up with Revere as he returns to post-War life as a Boston citizen. 

Revere’s later life is as action-packed as were his early years.  Revere tries the military life, merchant life and applies for a position as customs director.  But his talents lie elsewhere and it is to his shop that he returns.  He designed a silver roller and began working in iron and bronze.  He schooled himself in bell castings, and, most notably developed a mill for rolling copper sheeting which would line the domes of colonial buildings (including New York’s City Hall) and the underside of ships, most famously the U.S.S. Constitution, ‘Old Ironsides.’ He collaborated with Robert Fulton on copper boilers for steamships. The Paul Revere Heritage Site in Canton, MA is home to his recently-refurbished copper mill. Revere Copper Products Co. in Rome, New York operates today though Revere Ware is no longer made. If you happen to own any Revere Ware pots and pans with the copper bottom, you own a bit of history.

Esther Forbes was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for this book which was published in 1942.  She credits her mother, a historian, with doing much of the research and document-hunting that forms the basis for her book. The book flows easily for all its history; Forbes has been very accurately described as a “novelist who writes like a historian and a historian who writes like a novelist.”  While telling the story of Revere’s life, Forbes intersperses chapters on teeth and tea, dentistry, political clubs, the smallpox scourge in Boston and Revere’s silver work.  She gives profiles and insights into many of the prominent figures of the pre-revolutionary period in Boston. There is a good map of old Boston in the front of the book but not nearly enough supporting maps and pictures, though it is possible that I didn’t have the best edition of Forbes' book.   

For some additional information on Paul Revere, follow this link to the American Antiquarian Society to read about a 2019-20 exhibit called Reflections on Beyond Midnight: Paul Revere.  The first 28 minutes of Panel 1 with Robert Martello, a professor at Olin College of Engineering, are especially good and cover Revere’s work as a craftsman and inventor during his later life.

Paul Revere died at the age of 83.  He outlived his second wife, Rachel, and was survived by five children and 50 grandchildren.  Let’s hope we continue to have Americans and patriots like this man-of-action, Paul Revere, brought alive in Forbes’ excellent book which I hope you will read.