Good evening, and welcome to another edition of Inside the Cover.

Im excited abou tonight's book by one of my all time favorite authors, David McCullough: History Matters published by Simon and Schuster.

The book brings together selected writings by McCullough, all written over the course of his long and distinguished career, and each focused on his lifelong passion: The importance of history in understanding our present and future.

It is now time to go inside the cover.

David McCullough is the author of 12 monumental, magnificent, and marvelous books.

I've read and savored nine of them.

One of the most prized books in my personal library is my signed copy of John Adams, which Mr.

McCullough signed while he was in Manhattan to give a Landon Lecture at Kansas State.

This latest book is divided into four parts: Why History, Figures in a Landscape, Influences, and On Writing.

Each one offers samplings of McCullough's talent at the typewriter.

In fact, one is an essay about his beloved Royal Standard upright typewriter, which he had purchased secondhand in White Plains, New York, in 1965.

He was about to embark on his first try at a book, The Johnstown Flood.

Working at home at night and on weekends.

And he wanted a ‘solid, dependable machine built for serious business.

The book also offers on the front and back end papers, copies of original watercolors by McCullough of his home and his office and yard in West Tisbury, Massachusetts.

In 1995, McCullough was honored with the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

At the awards ceremony, he said regarding, In the Figures in a Landscape section, McCullough tells us about the artist Thomas Eakins.

The writer Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Presidents George Washington and Harry S Truman.

I loved his writing about influences.

He writes about his time at Yale, where he majored in English, studied painting and art, and experienced life outside of Pittsburgh for the very first time.

He paid tribute to Vincent Scully, one of his professors at Yale, who opened McCullough's eyes to architecture.

In an article about Arthur Schlesinger, McCullough writes about how President John F Kennedy influenced him to contribute to his country.

In remarks given at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, McCullough pays tribute to his friend and mentor, novelist, historian and painter Paul Horgan.

I was not aware of Horgan and now I want to read his work.

At an event celebrating the 80th birthday of writer Herman Wouk-- I do know and admire Wouks writing.

See our prior show on his books- McCullough said that Wouk had ‘opened up the possibility in the drama of history.

This section also includes list of McCullough's favorite books.

In an article he wrote for the Christmas newsletter of Waterstone's, a Boston bookstore, he made this recommendation: ‘To all parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles to anyone who loves a child.

Put a book at the foot o the bed for Christmas morning.

In the concluding part, the editors provide comments McCullough made at a conference about writing at Dartmouth College in 2012.

There, he offered this statement ‘There is no better way to understand who we ar and why we are the way we are, and where we may be heading, than by reading history from the hands of good writers.

I can't imagine a world without books.

Mr.

McCullough.

Neither can I. I offer this book as a must read.

Good night and see you next time, here on inside the Cover.

Till then, be well and keep reading.