Product Description

219 years ago you were given the right to practice the religion of your choice. 219 years ago you were given the right to say what you wanted without persecution. 219 years ago it was written that your house and property were secure from unreasonable search and seizure. 219 years ago you were given the right to a public trial. 219 years ago, fifty-five men you will never know sat in a sweltering hot room as they fought and argued for you. 219 years ago you were given your rights as a citizen of the United States.
This fall, as we return again to the ballot box to decide the course of our country’s congressional and state leadership, every voter must find their way back to that room in Philadelphia. Welcome Books is proud to provide a map.
The Constitution of The United States of America, inscribed and illustrated by the master calligrapher Sam Fink, brings to life the issues underlying the triumphs of this abiding document. Originally published in pen and ink for Random House in 1987, Sam has, at the request of Welcome Books, gone back to the original black-and-white art and painted it entirely, creating a full-color masterpiece. Each amendment, each article, each word so thoughtfully placed in the Constitution has been given Sam’s profound touch. With a powerful intelligence and a wonderful sense of humor, he has provided us with an entry point, allowing us to read this essential document better, more clearly.
Welcome Books is honored to present a full-color limited edition of Sam’s startling work as well as a trade edition, exquisitely designed and produced – matching in its manufacture the stunning quality of Sam’s ambition and the gravitas and significance of the original document.
The Constitution of The United States of America is the document we must read again and again. There is no more important document in our country. It is the document we must have an intimate knowledge of. It is the document that we must never forget.
219 years ago, you were entrusted with a living document. Have you kept it safe?
To begin, we must read it. This, Sam, in his direct and unadorned way, respectful and loving, helps us do.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #264251 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-29
• Released on: 2006-08-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 136 pages

Review
"The incredible Constitution of the United States of America, illustrated by Sam Fink, should be in every home in America." -Ray Bradbury

“Wow! Here is our Constitution printed and illustrated so beautifully, elegantly and charmingly, that the book will become a household treasure, indeed an heirloom.

Our Founding Fathers would surely have given it two thumbs up.”
--Jerome J. Shestack, Esquire

About the Author
Sam Fink has entertained and educated both adults and children with his vibrantly illustrated texts of American history for more than twenty years. Along with The Constitution of the United States of America, done in pen and ink for Random House in 1987, he has produced the Gettysburg Address, The Fifty Six Who Signed, and The Declaration of Independence: The Words That Made America. Before he turned to writing and illustration, Sam worked in an advertising firm where he was art director. At age 89, he is deep at work creating full color illustrations for the Book of Exodus.

Customer Reviews

A Beautifully Illustrated Edition of The Great Constitution of our Great Nation

No words are needed to review this book. Simply put: Every American should have a copy at Home.

Based in the original pen and ink edition from Random House in 1987, this edition has been painted and illustrated entirely by Sam Fink, creating a beautifully crafted full color masterpiece.

This is the one book that we must read again and again to gain an intimate and complete knowledge of it. A book for the entire family and one that we must never forget.

Every American should buy this book
This is a visually wonderful book. Sam Fink originally did a pen-and-ink version of this, which was later revised to be a full-colour version for Welcome Books. Apart from the briefest of commentary pieces, this is simply the text of the U.S. Constitution, from Preamble to Twenty-Seventh Amendment. Fink has done an engaging hand-inscribed version with illustrative artwork, sometimes symbolic and sometimes demonstrative. For example, for the Thirteen Amendment (the one passed in 1865 to abolish slavery), Fink's graphic shows strong chains being broken by a pair of shears that have been painted red, white and blue like the flag. For the Sixteenth Amendment (the 1913 amendment permitting general income taxes), Fink's drawing shows a man standing next to Uncle Sam, with Uncle Sam's hand reaching surreptitiously into the unsuspecting man's pocket.

Each section, article and amendment gets its own two-page or more spread, and in this nothing other than the bare text of the Constitution is included apart from the graphics and the very occasional historical notation. Fink has incorporated a dove motif into many of the graphics, in honour of the idea presented in Catherine Drinker Bowen's book, `Miracle at Philadelphia', that there were doves of peace that perched on the delegate's shoulders as they wrote the Constitution.

Fink includes a page on George Washington, full of quotable-quotes from others in history attesting to the significance of the man who was not only first president of the United States under this Constitution, but also president of the Constitutional Convention. Another page is devoted to Gouverneur Morris, who is credited with writing the Preamble. Fink also includes a two-page rendering of Benjamin Franklin's Address to the Delegates at the conclusion of the Convention. Franklin freely admits that the Constitution is not all he had hoped for, but then likely never would be for any given individual. After the text of the Constitution, Fink provides a six-page annotated chronology of the events in constitutional development (including the dates for amendments), and a two-page glossary of terms.

The inside covers on both the front and the back of the book show the complete Constitution, including an eagle graphic, written in two page format, all the more remarkable for being juxtaposed as it is in a book in which the Constitution takes up 120 pages of the 140-page book.

The large ledger-sized format gives physical weight and presence to a document fully worthy of such treatment. This is a visual treat, and one that might make this crucial document a bit more engaging for those who might take the Constitution for granted. The Constitution is a living document, and this helps show that, by adorning the text not with political commentary and legal theory, but with solid imagery that gives great impact.

Beautifully illustrated
I purchased the book for my daughter, who is in law school as a birthday gift. I thought it would be an neat way for her to learn the Constitution and something she could always have for her office.