Nice article today in the Champaign News Gazette about Illinois Brother Todd Creason, author of Famous American Freemasons.
From the Amazon description:
Famous American Freemasons is a collection of stories about some of the Masons from America's past. Through little-known stories of some of the fraternity's most influential members, Todd E. Creason shows the amazing range of contributions Masons have made to the causes of freedom, politics, philosophy, scientific discovery, and the arts-contributions that have helped to define the nation. In Famous American Freemasons, author and Freemason Todd E. Creason also gives unique insight into the history and philosophy of Freemasonry in America while debunking common myths and misconceptions about the world's largest and oldest fraternal organization. These famous American men came from all walks of life with different religious beliefs as well as educational, cultural, economic, and career backgrounds. They became patriots, Presidents, military leaders, entertainers, and American legends-and one and all were Freemasons.
Profits from ongoing sales of the books on hand will be divided between the Children's Learning Center and the Valley of Danville, Illinois for building upkeep and other projects.
Dear Brother Hodapp,
ReplyDeleteYou certainly can't write a good book without good sources. I have it on good authority that your book was used extensively as a source, and listed as a source in the bibliography of this book.
I thank you for your fine book--it was an invaluable resource. I look forward to meeting you--I missed a good chance recently. I'm sure our paths will cross eventually as we travel in the same space. Thanks for the mention.
Fraternally,
Todd E. Creason
Brother Todd,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words. I hope the book does well.
Unfortunately, the Dummies people won't let me put a bibliography in those books, and are not wild about even attributing information to other sources, so I'm listing my research books on http://www.librarything.com
Not perfect, but it's something.
For those looking for a slightly more gargantuan work with a few more famous masons tossed in than Brother Todd had room for, Michael Poll's Cornerstone Books has recently published a completely re-typeset, re-organized and corrected version of William Denslow's "10,000 Famous Freemasons." It's expensive and has not been updated in terms of new additions since the 1950s, but it is the only work of that kind of scope in the US. And Mike's update is a vast improvement over the Kessinger reprint.