BROWDERBOOKS
Wild New York
The ebook of Forbidden Brownstones, the fifth in my Metropolis series of historical novels set in nineteenth-century New York, now ranks #957 in Amazon's Kindle Store for ebooks, #11 in Coming of Age Fiction, and #1 in Black & African American Historical Fiction. And it is currently free. Yes, I said free.
Never before has a book of mine got such high ratings from Amazon. (The ebook of my historical novel Dark Knowledge, for instance, is #18,285 in Historical Mysteries in the Kindle Store.) The explanation: I listed Forbidden Brownstones in categories where there is little competition. And if you want it, and want it cheap, now is the time to get it. Go here.
And it would be super wonderful if ebook readers gave it a reader review. Reviews can be three or two sentences long, or even one sentence or a few words. The book has garnered excellent editorial (professional) reviews, but so far, only two reader reviews, albeit both of them five stars. But the author would appreciate any honest review, regardless of the number of stars.
Did they really say it? Famous false quotes.
Famous sayings are attributed to historical figures, but often falsely. Of the quotes listed here, how many are authentic and how many are false? See if you can tell. Some knowledge of American and French history will help.
1. After me, the deluge. Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV, anticipating the French Revolution or other woes to come.
2. O liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name! Madame Roland, a Girondin (moderate), on her way to the guillotine, a victim of Robespierre and the Jacobins.
3. Lafayette, we are here! General Pershing, commander of the American forces landing in France in 1917 to help the French fight the Germans in World War I. Lafayette had helped us win our independence from Britain in the Revolution.
4. So you are the little lady who started this big war! President Abraham Lincoln to Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, an international bestseller that exposed the evils of slavery. At a White House reception during the Civil War.
5. Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable! Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, a staunch defender of the Union, while debating a Southern senator in 1830. The debate foreshadowed Southern secession years later and the outbreak of the Civil War.
6. Let 'em eat cake! Marie Antoinette, when told that the people were rioting because they had no bread. Cited as an example of royal disdain, at the beginning of the French Revolution.
7. I shall return! General Douglas MacArthur, when ordered out of the Philippines in 1942, while the Japanese were invading the islands. He returned in 1944, splashing heroically shoreward through the surf (in full view of photographers) as American forces invaded the Philippine island of Leyte.
8. Law? What do I care about the law? I got the power, hain't I? Robber baron Commodore Vanderbilt, when told that what he wanted to do was illegal.
9. What this country needs is a splendid little war! Teddy Roosevelt, who got just such a war, the Spanish-American War of 1898. He charged up San Juan Hill in Cuba, became a national hero and, in time, President.
10. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in a speech to the American people in the 1930s, when the nation had to cope with the Great Depression and the rise of fascism in Europe, followed by World War II.
Answers: Numbers 2, 5, 7, and 10 are authentic; all the others are false. Roosevelt's statement (#10) concluded his acceptance speech, when the Democratic Party nominated him to run for re-election in 1936.
So how did you do, if you tried to separate the authentic quotes from the unauthentic? Here are some comments on the unauthentic ones:
1. No evidence she said it.
3. Pershing didn't himself say it, but Colonel E. Stanton did, upon visiting Lafayette's tomb in France in 1917.
4. This story surfaced long after Lincoln and Harriet Beecher Stowe had died, therefore is highly suspect.
6. Sometimes rephrased as "Why don't they eat cake?" This version shows royal ignorance, not disdain, but is still suspect.
8. Probably a distortion of an authentic remark by Vanderbilt indicating impatience with the law.
9. Not said by Teddy, though he certainly agreed. In a letter to President McKinley in 1898, Secretary of War John Hay referred to the war with Spain as "a splendid little war." It was short (three months) and ended in total victory for the US.
Coming soon: My Suicides.
© 2021 Clifford Browder
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