The Tale of George Atzerodt

[Dave Taylor]

Last year I gave a few bucks to a Kickstarter project that hoped to produce a book called "A Children's Illustrated History of Presidential Assassination".
It succeeded and I received my copy of the book today.



The book documents the assassination attempts on 13 different presidents, including Abe Lincoln. The drawings in the book are slightly cartoony but good. At one point the author documents the actions of George Atzerodt essentially in comic book form. Here is the humorous result:







You can see more pages of the book (though not Lincoln related) here: http://www.amazon.com/Childrens-Illustra...0615999034

[BettyO]

How wonderful! George Atzerodt gets his own comic book! I'm so glad to see this - it's beautifully done and gets the point across in an informative and entertaining way - just what kids will get hold of and remember!

It's about time someone took some pains to get George's story out!

Laurie - maybe we need to sell this at Surratt House?!

Thanks a ton, Dave, as always!

[Rsmyth]

Live it! Very well done. How do we order a copy?

[wpbinzel]

I am not so sure about it being available at Surratt House. "The hotel the Vice President is staying at" may not pass muster with the teacher in Laurie. (Thanks for sharing, Dave.)

[L Verge]

I'm sticking with Mike Person's With Malice Towards Some, but this is certainly cute and to the point. Should we classify this as an Assassination Primer?

[BettyO]

Agreed! I LOVE Mike's Book - beautiful, colorful, informative and utterly correct!

This is cute, though.....

[LincolnMan]

Here I go again - so get mad at me! I just don't see where the subject matter is appropriate for children. Am I missing something here? Maybe for young teens, but children? Help me where I'm wrong on this!

[L Verge]

I'm going to let my grandson argue with you, Bill. He recently had to do a paper where he argued and defended his belief that children in grade 5 should learn the basics of what the Holocaust was. He's 14 now, but he has been reading about the Lincoln assassination since he was about 10.

When I see what children are viewing on TV, the web, and video games nowadays, it makes the assassination story look like Goldilocks. I think the point I want to make is that good teachers and parents use it as a learning tool as to how to avoid anything like this happening again. When I did school tours at the museum, I made the correlation between Booth and his men and gangs and their tactics today -- and the idea of guilt by association. I always ended with, "...and choose your friends wisely."

[LincolnMan]

I agree with your post Laurie. Your grandson sounds like a sharp young man. You mention he was 10 years old when he started learned about the Lincoln assassination story. Actually, in my mind I was thinking age 10 as a starting point for such a subject. I think pre-age 10 might be too young. You make a very valid point about what the kids are exposed to nowadays. Still, my gut is uncomfortable with the subject being targeted for kids. It may be just me. I find it hard to imagine a book like that being a reading that would be offered in a fourth or fifth grade class.

[L Verge]

I guess that I worry more about what children ages 4-12 are viewing on the evening news with constant reruns of the Boston Marathon bombings, the hell that is going on in Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern countries, etc. Granted that most children do not watch the news, but many are playing games on their hand-held devices while the news is blaring in the background.

Those children are learning the horrors of life without learning the context that goes with it. The children's books on the assassination are being bought by parents and educators and (hopefully) read with the children while giving guidance on how to understand the situation. Blindly listening to the news or using other electronic "learning" devices don't have the same effect, IMO.

[Gene C]

Do you think the comic book/graphic illustration format tends to lessen the violence aspect and take away some of the reality to the situation, and makes it more like just a story (as opposed to the news)

[L Verge]

A very good point, Gene. I also grew up on Classic Comics, so I'm used to getting my history in that form. And, much better done than some of the "scholarly" books that have been produced on the subject.

[Hess1865]

That cartoon is a riot!!!
Thanks for giving me a good laugh!!

[L Verge]

Lindsey Horn gave a tour of Surratt House yesterday to a family from California whose ten-year-old son had read Chasing Mr. Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson (the children's version of Manhunt). It is standard text, not comic book form; but it had made such an impression on this child - one of four in the family - that they decided to come East for their vacation in order to see Lincoln-related sites.

Lindsey had a blast with this young man! He was one step ahead of her all the way (and Lindsey's history is fantastic!), asked excellent questions, and is well on his way to becoming a scholar in the field. It brought back memories of the 19-year-old Michael Kauffman when I first met him and wondered how much that young squirt knew about the Lincoln assassination -- and then I found out!

This isn't the first time that we have had history prodigies visit Surratt House, and I hope we will see many more. We have to turn our future generations' minds away from Grand Theft Auto to historical topics that can help guide them as future citizens - not future criminals. Yes, Booth committed a crime - but what's important is what caused that crime, could it have been prevented, and how to recover and move on for the good of the country.

[DanielC]

How wonderful! George Atzerodt gets his own comic book! I'm so glad to see this - it's beautifully done and gets the point across in an informative and entertaining way - just what kids will get hold of and remember!

It's about time someone took some pains to get George's story out!

Laurie - maybe we need to sell this at Surratt House?!

Thanks a ton, Dave, as always!

George's story will be told Betty! and the perpetuation for the last 149 years that George was just a fall down drunk who lost his nerve as this comic portrays,( as well as allot of other books on the subject) well it will not be cast aside, but there sure will be another side we can examine.