Reviews: (by author)

Curlee, Lynn. Capital. New York: Atheneum, 2003. $17.95. ISBN 0-689-84947-8.

A Main Selection of the Children's Book of the Month Club, this beautiful book belongs in every upper elementary school classroom, in the hands of history buffs, as recommended reading for people about to visit the city, and on the lucky individual's private library shelves. Curlee comprehensively relates the fascinating history of Washington D.C. from its original design by Major Pierre-Charles L'Enfant, who had come to the States to fight in the Revolutionary War to the present. L'Enfant laid out the grid and the major broad streets that radiate from it and located the sites of the Capitol (where the Congress meets).and the White House. The British burned Washington in the War of 1812; rebuilding began in 1815. Curlee writes of the many permutations undergone by the city in its monument building and provides maps, blueprints, the competitive designs for the various buildings, and a wonderful selection of anecdotes, such as the wood rot that caused a leg of Margaret Truman's piano to crash through the floorboards. The Washington Monument was the tallest building in the world until the Eiffel Tower was constructed in 1889 or that the Lincoln Memorial was designed with the Parthenon in mind. Curlee explains the symbols found on the monuments, e.g. that the 36 fluted columns encircling the building represent the 36 states in the Union at the time of Lincoln's presidency. This history of a major world capital is accompanied by Curlee's uncluttered paintings; for example, his overhead view of the Jefferson Monument displays this lovely building in its setting on the river with its famous cherry trees in bloom. Anyone visiting D.C. and its monuments is struck by how they are visible all in a row if one just stands in the right place—Curlee illustrates this in a lovely painting of the nighttime fireworks for the Fourth of July with the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the Capitol all lined up.

I was recently in D.C. and this book would have been useful reading or me. The only notable contemporary change in what Curlee depicts is that the security around the buildings is very noticeable—barricades, for example, around the Capitol. Perhaps one of these days the barriers will come down…something to look forward to.

Highly recommended
Alida Allison, January 2004

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