Walter Isaacson, the former media executive who has written a shelfful of magisterial biographies on Benjamin Franklin and other history-changers, will be out Tuesday with a wee, 67-page hardcover, "The Greatest Sentence Ever Written" — an optimistic exposition of the most famous sentence in the Declaration of Independence.
The sentence in question: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."
"We all know this sentence almost by heart," Isaacson told me. "But I wanted to drill down so we can think about and appreciate what it really means."
- He said his editor at Simon & Schuster, editor-in-chief Priscilla Painton, and longtime agent Amanda "Binky" Urban seized on the idea that short books have become a format readers now love.
Between the lines: Isaacson said as America approaches next year's 250th birthday celebrations, he wants to help reaffirm "the common ground we share as a nation, as embodied in the second sentence of the Declaration."
- "We should be thinking of ways to celebrate that unite us in our common values rather than pulling us apart," Isaacson said. "I've been thinking about and gathering thoughts and essays on the Declaration and its key sentence for five years."
The short book contains a transcript of Thomas Jefferson's rough draft of the Declaration with edits by Franklin and John Adams.
- "I parse the sentence and its edits word by word, and then I discuss how the sentence and the Declaration lay the foundation for two key concepts for our nation: the importance of common ground and of the American Dream," Isaacson said.
