Is there something new to learn from the autobiography of a U.S. president from the 1920s? He did not live long enough to be involved in World War II or the current wars. As a matter of fact, he was proud of his administration's agreement forged with 62 nations to outlaw war in January 1929.

Calvin Coolidge spent the first 50 pages of his book, "The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge," describing his town of Plymouth and growing up in Vermont. I feel that Vermonters should take heed and read this edition, for in it they will find a beautiful description of our state and the values we cherish. They will be surprised that the prose is careful, uplifting, simple and moving. All this from Silent Cal?

Yes, Calvin Coolidge could write and was the last president to write his own speeches. Writing was his chief occupation after retiring from the White House. He commented about current affairs in a syndicated column for newspapers, wrote magazine articles and his own story.

A few choice morsels from the book:

His mother: "It seems impossible that any man could adequately describe his mother. I cannot describe mine … It seemed as though the rich green tints of the foliage and blossoms of the flowers came for her in the springtime, and in the autumn it was for her that the mountain sides were struck with crimson and with gold."

His family: "They all taught me to be faithful over a few things. If they had any idea that such a training might some day make me a ruler over many things, it was not disclosed to me."

The value of work: "Whenever the hired man or the hired girl wanted to go anywhere they were always understood to be entitled to my place in the wagon, in which case I remained at home. This gave me a very early training in democratic ideas and impressed upon me very forcible the dignity and power, if not the superiority of labor."

Calvin Coolidge labored over his words and edited them down to powerful prose that reads easily even to the modern reader. His autobiography deserves another look. Ironically, this U.S. president, who wrote so well, does not have any books in print. The National Notaries and the Coolidge Foundation joined forces to republish this edition with new pictures and an index carefully produced by Jim Cooke, the scholar and first-person interpreter of Calvin Coolidge.

"The break of day saw them stirring," Coolidge began his description of Plymouth. "Their industry continued until twilight … they were without exception a people of faith and charity and of good works. They cherished the teachings of the Bible and sought to live in accordance with its precepts." Perhaps Coolidge looked back at the farming era as the industrial boom was changing the nation. He was nostalgic for his past, but he clearly described the hardships they faced and the early deaths of his mother and sister before modern medicine. When World War I was over, he knew that things would change and he was optimistic. He predicted "a glory never before experienced by any people of our world."

Coolidge recalled one of the most famous events in 20th century Vermont history. "On the night of Aug. 2, 1923, I was awakened by my father coming up the stairs calling my name ... The oath was taken in what we always called the sitting room by the light of the kerosene lamp ... I do not know of any other case in history where a father has administered to his son the qualifying oath which made him the chief magistrate of a nation."

The room Coolidge described was preserved for history by Vermonters in 1957. One can take a copy of the autobiography and read it while looking at the room in the homestead, now a building at President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site. Events of 1923 will come to life as you read them.