R. E. Lee in 1980

The summer of 1980 was the hottest and driest in my memory. It was brutal. One other thing I remember from it, though, which was a real positive. I joined the History Book Club in order to get Douglas Freeman's four-volume biography of General Robert E. Lee, and read it that summer. I honestly can say it was one of the most profitable personal exercises I have ever undertaken. The general was an outstanding gentleman in every sense of the word.