My Memories of Eighty Years

Rating:
Summary: This is a family book
Review: My great uncle actually wrote this book. I highly reccomend this book to anyone interested in politics or American history. He rubbed shoulders with the wealthy vanderbilts, and made many government decisions. Truly an inside look at an influential person.

Rating:
Summary: This is a family book
Review: My great uncle actually wrote this book. I highly reccomend this book to anyone interested in politics or American history. He rubbed shoulders with the wealthy vanderbilts, and made many government decisions. Truly an inside look at an influential person.

Rating:
Summary: Well worth reading
Review: This 1924 book is not an autobiography. The author does not mention his first wife who died in 1893 at all and does not name his second wife, whom he married in 1900. I learned about his marriages from reading the article on him in the Encyclopedia
Americana, not from reading the book. DePew's fame came from his speeches and his political activity. In 1910 he published his addresses and orations in 8 volumes! The book is not modest about its author and sounds like one would expect a garrulous man in his eighties who is used to being deferred to would sound, telling what a great guy he is and what great people he has known (every President from Lincoln to Coolidge!). The book was written before Harding died and DePew says Harding is "developing the highest qualities of leadership." This quote illustrates a flaw in the book: he usually only tells us good things about people he knew, tho he must have known interesting unfavorable things about many of the people he talks about. All in all, I enjoyed reading this book by a man who was a household name in his lifetime but I suppose is unknown to most people today. I found the book in a college library. (I like college libraries--they don't weed out old books as public libraries too often do.)

Rating:
Summary: Well worth reading
Review: This 1924 book is not an autobiography. The author does not mention his first wife who died in 1893 at all and does not name his second wife, whom he married in 1900. I learned about his marriages from reading the article on him in the Encyclopedia
Americana, not from reading the book. DePew's fame came from his speeches and his political activity. In 1910 he published his addresses and orations in 8 volumes! The book is not modest about its author and sounds like one would expect a garrulous man in his eighties who is used to being deferred to would sound, telling what a great guy he is and what great people he has known (every President from Lincoln to Coolidge!). The book was written before Harding died and DePew says Harding is "developing the highest qualities of leadership." This quote illustrates a flaw in the book: he usually only tells us good things about people he knew, tho he must have known interesting unfavorable things about many of the people he talks about. All in all, I enjoyed reading this book by a man who was a household name in his lifetime but I suppose is unknown to most people today. I found the book in a college library. (I like college libraries--they don't weed out old books as public libraries too often do.)