GalleyCat grabs the AP's coverage of Simon & Schuster's planned release of an illustrated edition of David McCullough's 1776. The new edition, which will retail for $65 and have an initial print run of 250,000, is set for a fall debut, and will feature "numerous pictures and documents, including paintings by Gilbert Stuart and John Trumbull and replicas of maps and letters and an early draft of the Declaration of Independence."
McCullough: "I hope it can mark a beginning of more of this kind of integration of art and history. I've tried, as much as I can, to encourage teachers to teach history this way - there's nothing like the experience of holding a real letter or diary in your hands from a distant time. It's the closest you can get to being in touch, having a tactile connection with those vanished people."
I like this idea, but it's unfortunate that they've chosen to abridge the text in order to create this new edition. The only saving grace to the abridgement is that McCullough's done it himself.
