Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Ray Stannard Baker, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thomson Gale. The length of the entry is 1136 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Book Description
As his presidency drew to a close, Woodrow Wilson came to realize the claim history would soon have on the documentary record of his life and work, of which he had been a rather inattentive keeper. While some of his more important manuscripts had been kept at his home on S Street in Washington, D.C., approximately 200,000 papers were left behind in the basement of the White House. That is, until one of the president's longtime friends, the journalist and author Ray Stannard Baker, came forward spurred by an interest in Wilson and his involvement in the American Peace Commission in Paris, 1919. In The President and His Biographer: Woodrow Wilson and Ray Stannard Baker, the renowned historian Merrill D. Peterson looks not just at Wilson's life and career, but also at the way Wilson was represented by Baker and other biographers, as well as in the media. Rather than addressing the voluminous Wilson historiography, Peterson bases his biographical study on primary sources -- in particular the sixty-nine volumes of his Papers edited by Arthur Link and those compiled by Baker -- providing a vivid and detailed narrative of our nation's twenty-eighth president.

Making the reader constantly aware of the powerful filters through which we perceive historical figures, Peterson's vivid and detailed narrative of encounters between the idealistic Wilson and his even more idealistic biographer makes for absorbing reading. A sympathetic account of a controversial figure in American history, The President and His Biographer will appeal to anyone interested in Wilson and his time. ... Read more

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This, I am firmly convinced, is a strange world, as strange a one as I ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A MUCH OVERLOOKED GEM HERE
This is the first in a series of around eight books by David Grayson (actually this is Ray Stannard Baker writing as Grayson).
The title of the work says it all.If you are looking for a very, very mellow read, simply stuffed with wonderful observations, then this is one for you.The style/syntax, while admittedly archaic, is great and it takes only a couple of pages for you to fall into it's rythm.This book was written in the early part of the last century.This work reflects a time long past in this country, but that being said, this work still
touches many aspects of our lives we often overlook in one way or another.If you can find this work, and the rest of the series, I strongly recommend you purchase them as you will want to read them over and over again. It is a shame we seem to have lost such books.

Wonderful, insightful, optimistic...
There are many great words to describe this book (and many others) by David Grayson.I can't believe there are so few reviews either, the last ones were in 1998!I think it's high time to spread the word about this man and his beautiful observations of who we are and how the simple things in life are what really matter.

Simply the greatest . . .
My first exposure to this book was ten years ago, when in the LSU library I stumbled upon some very old, very dusty books.Being intrigued by old books, I found his simple titles (Adventures in Contentment, Adventures inFriendship, Adventures in Solitude, etc.) irresistible.I read 5 DavidGrayson (Ray Stannard Baker's pseudonym) books in two days.I returnedthem to the library, then soon afterward moved to California. I could notremember Grayson's name, though I would tell stories about those wonderfulbooks that influenced my life and my writing.

7 years later, I cameacross a 90 year old copy of Adventures in Contentment, and found that itstruck me as even more profound, having tasted a little of the cynicalworld that drove the main character from the city to the farm. This is theonly book I have ever read that made me cry tears of human experience --and then the very next chapter had me laughing out loud.(I was sitting ata coffee house with my friends when this happened, after which they wantedto borrow the book.)

If you are a person of thought, this book will moveyou.Grayson will take you on a tour of his farm and his mind.You willgive him a voice, and you will hear that voice speak the words as you read. You will quote this book, you will reread this book, you will think ofthis book with the fondness of a close friend.

The simplicity of theessays will charm you, his masterful vocabulary will force you to grab yourdictionary, and his expressive literary patterns will strike you as beingas close to poetry as prose could possible come.

A picture may say 1000words, but David Grayson's simple essays about small town life in the early1900's will paint more vivid images in your mind than 1,000,000Michaelangelos ever could. Simply stated, this is the greatest literarywork ever written.Unfortunately, modern literary critics refer to thistype of work as unimportant, sentimental and preachy. So this book willprobably never be placed in its rightful spot in the literarycanon.

Still, don't think the author died in obscurity without his talentbeing discovered.He was a lifelong friend of Woodrow Wilson, and in hisold age, Ray Stannard Baker won the Pulitzer Prize for his biography of hisfamous friend.

Most delightful book I have ever read.
I wonder why there aren't any reviews on this book? It is the greatest book ever written.This book is about a person who has found a perfect harmony in life. Escaping all the scholastic philosophy and theologicalquest David Grayson here settles for what I regard the highest wisdom andthe true purpose of life, and that is living. The book is potrayal ofextra-ordinary experiences of a farmer poet who discovers a world withinand without and adds a dream world quality with a sense of humour to oureveryday experiences. A return to nature, beauty, simplicity, spontanietyand harmony! ... Read more