Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields »

"Senator Byrd's political career spans the period from 1946 to the present, a period which has indelibly shaped the history of the world, and his career in Washington, D.C., which began in 1953, continues unabated. This book is his story - the autobiography of one of America's greatest U.S. Senators." "From a Lincolnesque beginning, to an adolescence forged in the Great Depression; from a marriage to his high-school sweetheart, Erma James, to more than fifty years of service as one of America's preeminent lawmakers, the life of Senator Robert C. Byrd is a true Horatio Alger story." Now 87 years old, Senator Byrd looks back at this journey, producing an autobiography not likely to be paralleled by those coming behind him. He narrates the incredible opportunities for leadership he has exercised, but he also reminds us of the ordinary events that have made up the texture of his American experience. He cites details of his first trip abroad, where he went out of his way to visit the cities he knew from the Bible. He notes with sadness the death of his first teacher, who taught him to read and write in a two-room schoolhouse in Mercer County, West Virginia. And he takes joy in exhorting everyone to read history and great literature. Often enough, he lists the books he reads himself during the August recesses of the Senate.