Description
Signed presentation copy of The Americans: The National Experience by Daniel J. Boorstin, a Christmas gift from President George H.W. Bush in 1991 to White House Social Secretary, Laurie Firestone.
Octavo, [8], 517pp, [1]. Full red leather, title in gilt on spine, decorative raised bands, presidential seal on cover. The recipient’s name in gilt on front cover. Includes laid-in card from the White House and gold ribbon affixed to the rear pastedown.
Inscribed on a presidential bookplate affixed to front endpaper: “To Laurie Firestone / Merry Christmas / George Bush.”
Laurie Firestone served as Social Secretary to President and Mrs. George H.W. Bush during both the eight-year term as Vice President and the following four-year term as President. She wrote “An Affair to Remember: State Dinners for Home Entertaining,” a memoir of her time at the White House. This copy of The Americans: The National Experience was specially bound in full leather for intimates of the Bush family, including his son Neil Bush, General Colin Powell, former President Jimmy Carter, and others.
During their time in the White House, the Bush family had five books rebound as gifts for the holiday season, including: The Americans: The Democratic Experience by Daniel J. Boorstin, The Americans: The National Experience by Daniel J. Boorstin, The Americans: The Colonial Experience by Daniel J. Boorstin, Inaugural Addresses: 1789-1989, and Webster’s Collegiate Thesaurus. All were inscribed by President Bush on bookplates, from 1989-1992.
