Ash Lawn offers pair of new Monroe tomes

By Sharon C. Fitzgerald Daily Progress correspondent
Published: July 4, 2008

Visitors to Ash Lawn-Highland will soon be able to buy two new books about the life and times of James Monroe.

The publications will add to the 20-plus books Ash Lawn sells about the country’s fifth president. Over the years, the historic home has overseen or participated in the publication of books on Monroe’s presidency, time of the farm and his love of music and religion.

A coffee table book, “James Monroe — An Illustrated History,” was released earlier this year and sells for $19.95. Author Daniel Preston is the editor of The Papers of James Monroe and considered to be an expert on the president, said Carolyn Coggin Holmes, executive director of Ash Lawn-Highland.

“The book is heavily pictorial and has interesting text along with it,” Holmes said.

Preston also has written books about Monroe’s work as a lawyer, his time as president and the first two volumes of his personal papers.

Ash Lawn will release “Monroe Quotations” later this year. This is an expanded version of the book “Monroe On…”, which was released in the early 1990s. The publication date or price has not been determined, Holmes said. The original book included quotes on various subjects, but is no longer available for purchase.

“We keep adding quotations,” Holmes said. “This will be a totally different book [from the original].”

This year Ash Lawn is working to find outside publishers so the books can reach a wider audience. In the past, the historic home has self-published their books and sold them primarily in-house.

“We’re good at a number of things, but marketing books isn’t one of them,” Holmes said.

The museum is still looking for a publisher for the quotations book and hopes to have it in circulation in early 2009, Holmes said.

“You’ve got to make the right match [of publisher and book],” she said.

As for future publications, “there is always a book in the works,” Holmes said.