“Silent Cal” Coolidge (1872–1933) was renowned for his dry, laconic wit. One story has him sitting at formal dinner beside a woman who told him she had a bet that she could coax at least three words out of him. “You lose,” Coolidge responded. Though that tale is more likely legend than fact, Coolidge’s one-sentence announcement “I do not choose to run for president in 1928” sums up perfectly his often taciturn nature.
In his writing, he was equally frugal with his words. On leaving the White House, he penned his autobiography in three months. Praised by historian Craig Fehrman as “the forgotten classic of presidential writing,” Coolidge’s short account of a life filled with significant events is a model of economy in prose.
