Best Little Stories from the White House 2nd edition
by By Kelly, C. Brian and Smyer, Ingrid
Category: Biography & Autobiography , Presidents & Heads of State

A fascinating collection of more than 100 vignettes drawn from the life and times of America's most famous and legendary home. Here are stories about the house itself and how it has evolved over the years, as well as stories about its famous occupants. Best Little Stories from the White House is a fascinating collection of more than 100 vignettes drawn from the life and times of America's most famous and legendary home. Here are stories about the house itself and how it has evolved over the years, as well as stories about its famous occupants.  For instance did you know:  Woodrow Wilson used to chase up and down the White House corridors playing "rooster fighting" with his daughter Nellie.  Winston Churchill once suffered a minor heart episode while struggling with a stuck window in the White House. Among the menagerie tended by Theodore Roosevelt's children was the pony Algonquin, whom the siblings sneaked upstairs in the White House elevator to cheer up their sick brother. "Silent" Calvin Coolidge liked to play pranks on his staff - he would press the call buttons on this desk, then hide behind the door as Secret Service agents, secretaries, military aides, and other support staff streamed in to look for him. At Boris Yeltsin's first state dinner at the White House - the first state dinner for a non-Communist Russian leader since the nineteenth century - George and Barbara Bush presented him with an automatic tennis-ball server.  Also included are stories of the experiences of several first ladies, including Dolley Madison, Harriet "Hal" Lane (niece of James Buchanan), Mary Lincoln, Jacqueline Kennedy, Barbara Bush, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Laura Bush.