08/09/2025
Today is National Book Lovers Day.
The Taft family loved books. In 1851, William Howard Taft’s grandfather, Peter Rawson Taft, made a diary entry that listed the books and papers on the upper shelf in the desk. Some of the books listed were Western Guide Book: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, Paradise Lost, Christian Lyre and Greek Grammar, Malcom’s Bible Dictionary, Bible Companion, Bunker Hill Monument, Wm. Wallace, Manuel of Psalmody, Goldsmith’s Miscellany Work, Anecdotes of Natural History, Life of Gerard, Paley’s Evidences of Christianity, Whatley’s Logic and Rhetoric, Lectures of Public Characters, Cowper’s Life and Works: Volumes 2, 4,and 6, Directions for Invigorating and Prolonging Life, Washington’s Farewell Address, Johnson’s Dictionary, Western Arithmetic, Arithmetic by Ray, Olmsted’s Astronomy, Lovel’s U.S. Speaker, Folsom’s Levy Cookery, History of the U.S. by a Gentleman, Bonaparte’s Life, and Geography of the Meadows, Wayland’s Moral Science, Murry’s Grammar, Day on the Wall, Great Britain in 1823, Hedge’s Logic, and Hershel’s Treaters on Astronomy.
What is your favorite book?
Photo credit: Ruth Horstman/NPS
