READING AND SIGNING WITH MAPLEWOOD AUTHOR ULYSSES DIETZ

MAPLEWOOD, NEW JERSEY - October, 2009 - Words presents an author reading & signing Maplewood author, Ulysses Dietz, author of Dream House: the White House as an American Home, on Friday, November 13, 2009 at 7:30 pm.

“Dream House: The White House as an American Home (Acanthus Press; $75) is 304 pages of cold comfort for those who think 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is immune to charges of ghastly taste. Ulysses Grant Dietz, the Newark Museum scurator of decorative arts and the president’s great-great-grandson, and Sam Watters, an architecture critic, began with the premise that the White House once mirrored national trends and aspirations in domestic design: Jefferson inhabited an Anglo-aristo country estate; Jackson, a genteel villa enshrining democratic values; Franklin Roosevelt, a suburban crib with the design integrity of a midprice hotel chain. The evolution ended with the Kennedys, Mr. Watters said, saving his most withering criticism for Jackie: The idea is that she restored it as it was under the early presidents, he said, when in fact, she restored it to how she thought they should have lived.” --The New York Times, October 1, 2009

Ulysses Grant Dietz, a great-great-grandson of Ulysses S. Grant, has been the curator of Decorative Arts at The Newark Museum since 1980, and Senior Curator since 2007. He has published numerous articles on decorative arts and books on the Museum’s Studio Pottery, Art Pottery and 19th century furniture collections.