The Man Who Knew Coolidge (Summarized Edition)

Published in 1928, The Man Who Knew Coolidge is a sequence of comic monologues in which Lowell Schmaltz—a tireless salesman and civic booster—fills train compartments, lobbies, and Rotary luncheons with unstoppable patter. Claiming acquaintance with President Calvin Coolidge, Schmaltz touts self-made virtue, efficiency, and "constructive" citizenship, exposing the buzzwords and anxieties of Coolid...