Which President Killed a Man? : Tantalizing Trivia and Fun Facts About Our Chief Executives and First Ladies by James Humes

I am weeding books again. As I always do, I find some books whose inactivity surprises me. This time I found Which President Killed a Man? : Tantalizing Trivia and Fun Facts About Our Chief Executives and First Ladies by James Humes. According to our records, we have had it eight years, and no one ever borrowed it. Since I was probably the librarian who bought it, I checked it out and brought it home. I had a great time reading it from cover to cover - though Bonnie may not have appreciated all my "Did you know?" questions.

As you might guess, Which President Killed a Man? is an extensive collection of questions with answers grouped in thematic chapters. The author suggests readers could use it to play trivia games at parties or family get-togethers. That sounds like a nerdy thing to do, but I actually think it would be lots of fun. You have to have the right kinds of friends. (Pete Midkiff, Jack Oliver, Don Richmond, Robert Goehring, or Glenn Kersten might do.)

The book does not look pristine, so I wonder if the circulations stats are to be trusted. Maybe browsers at the library thumbed through it to learn the following:

• Which general was a winner when he faced four other generals in an election?
• Who was the only president to be granted a patent for an invention?
• Who was the only president to be elected to an office of the Confederacy?
• Who was the first president to be born west of the Mississippi River?

James Garfield, Abraham Lincoln, John Tyler, and Herbert Hoover are your answers. Humes tells stories in revealing the answers to these and several hundred other questions. There are two or three questions per page. Much can be learned painlessly.

The author does not seem to have updated the work, but I think there are only a couple of answers that need revising. Check it out if you can find it.

Humes, James. Which President Killed a Man? : Tantalizing Trivia and Fun Facts About Our Chief Executives and First Ladies. Contemporary Books, 2003. 242p. ISBN 0071402233.