Please join Congressional Cemetery for a book signing event for author Kurt Deion’s new book, Presidential Grave Hunter: One Kid’s Quest to Visit the Tomb of Every President and Vice President. The author will be present to sign books and meet and greet attendees. Books will also be for sale at the event. A complimentary tour of many of the gravesites related to the presidency and vice presidency will be offered as a part of the event, with the author in attendance.
The event is free to attend but we ask that you please RSVP here!
You can purchase your own copy of Presidential Grave Hunter here!
The event is rain or shine. In the event of inclement weather, the book signing will take place in the chapel.
About the book:
In 2003, nine-year-old presidential enthusiast Kurt Deion presented his father with an audacious request: would he help him follow in the footsteps of historian Richard Norton Smith and C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb by taking him to visit the final resting place of each dead U.S. president? He got all he asked for, and more.
Deion’s journey to these tombs, and from elementary school neophyte to college history major, was unorthodox. With his zany, boundary-pushing father at the wheel, the straight-laced youngster found himself sneaking a camera past Secret Service agents, purposely locked in a cemetery enclosed with barbed wire, and handcuffed to the former Dallas homicide detective who was tethered to alleged JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald when he was shot by Jack Ruby. Most daringly, he (reluctantly) gained entry to a vice president’s private family burial ground in order to possibly become the lone person to have visited each presidential and vice presidential grave, collectively.
In this history-driven memoir, Deion reconstructs his decade-long, cross-country quest and analyzes the evolution of his perspective on the commanders-in-chief and what it means to visit a cemetery.
About the author:
KURT DEION is a public historian, author, guest speaker, and the presidential expert for RoadsideAmerica.com. He holds an M.A. in history. At age 14 he launched kurtshistoricsites.com as a means to both document his travels and to encourage others to visit gravesites and engage in hands-on history. His website and his cemetery pilgrimages were the subject of a 2015 interview on the C-SPAN show Q&A.
From the author: “Elbridge Gerry is interred at my all-time favorite burial ground: Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Here, on November 12, 2011, I sit beneath the gateway arch prior to its restoration.”
