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Jim Tresner, 33°, Grand Cross
P.O. Box 70, Guthrie, Oklahoma 73044–0070
Book Reviews Editor, The Scottish Rite Journal
We have three great books this month-a novel, a work on symbolism,
and a biography. They are each a joy to read, and there is something
for almost any taste.
Dan Brown. The Da Vinci Code,
NY: Doubleday, 2003, ISBN 0-385-50420-9, hardback, 454 pages.
List Price $24.95 with discounts available on the Internet
 Da
Vinci's Vitruvian Man
Most of the books I recommend don't make the best-seller list,
but this is an exception. The Da Vinci Code is a mystery
story that should appeal to most Masons. The hero is a famous
expert on symbols and symbolism, and he has to use the interpretation
of symbols to solve a murder which leads to a far larger mystery.
It's all here in a fascinating mixture: the Grail quest, the Templars,
Rosslyn Chapel, and iconography. The book compels your interest
from the first paragraph and does not let you go until the last.
A famed museum director, as well as an expert in symbolism and
the guardian of an age-old secret, is fatally shot. With his last
moments of life, not wanting the secret to die with him, he draws
a pentagram on his chest in his own blood and arranges his dying
body to represent Da Vinci's famous drawing of Vitruvian Man.
The assassin is a member of a fundamentalist cult. Mystery, Templarism,
conspiracy, intrigue, and a healthy dose of knowledge about symbols-it's
all in this gripping book. If you start reading it in the evening,
as I did, make an extra pot of coffee. You'll be up late.
Leon Zeldis, 33°, Masonic Symbols
and Signposts, Lancaster, Virginia: Anchor Communications,
2003, ISBN 0-935633-27-8, paperbound, 165 pages. $19.95 plus $3.50
s&h. Order from Anchor Communications, 5266 Mary Ball Road,
Lancaster, VA 22503, or order from their Internet store www.lostword.com,
VISA or MasterCard accepted.
Ill. Brother Zeldis, 33°, is Past Sovereign Grand Commander
of the Scottish Rite Supreme Council for the State of Israel,
a man of prominence in many fields, and a highly noted Masonic
scholar who also recently published Land of Four Seas,
a novel. In the present book, Masonic Symbols and Signposts,
he provides some interesting and useful information about the
symbols found in Masonry. Even more, perhaps, he provides an understanding
of why we use symbols at all and where, quite literally, there
is no other way in which Masonry can work.
As a way of sensing the book's richness, consider some of the
chapter titles: "Symbolism of the Stone," "Symbolism
of the Ladder," "Color Symbolism in Freemasonry,"
"Symbolism of Colors in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite," "The Labyrinth," "King Solomon's Quarries,"
and much more. The book has a clear and easy style with information
that will make you stop and think. You will read it again and
again, first to gain an overview and later as a reference work.
 Glenn
Sherwood, A Labor of Love: The Life and Art of Vinnie Ream,
Hygiene, Colorado: SunShine Press, 1997, ISBN 0-9615743-6-4, hardback,
440 pages, index, hundreds of illustrations. List price $60.00
substantial discounts available on the Internet
I somehow missed this book when it came out, but it's still available.
It is a large book, filled with photographs, and it tells the
story of a most interesting young woman. Vinnie Ream (left) was
a strikingly beautiful girl with an astonishing range of talents.
She was working in the dead letter office in Washington, D.C.,
when, at the age of 15, she went with a friend to visit a famous
sculptor. Holding a piece of clay for the first time in her life,
she molded an Indian head with such talent that the sculptor took
her on the spot as his student. Before two years had passed, Vinnie
had sculpted almost every important person in Washington during
the height of the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln gave her sittings
each day for months. When Lincoln was assassinated and Congress
decided to have a statue made to honor him, Vinnie, still a teenager,
won the commission. She was the first woman, and is still the
youngest person, ever to receive a commission for a work of art
from the Federal Government. Her life-size standing statue of
Lincoln is still in the Capitol's Statuary Hall.
She also painted, composed and published music, played the harp,
and wrote poetry. She was living at home with her parents, who
took in boarders. One of those boarders was Lilian Pike, the daughter
of Albert Pike. Vinnie wanted to meet the great man, and Lilian
introduced them. An instant friendship formed. At Vinnie's request,
Pike wrote a series of essays, and Vinnie would come at least
one evening a week when she and Lilian would sit by the fire and
listen to Pike read the essay aloud. Pike's unpublished "Essays
to Vinnie" contain some of his best writing, and they range
over such topics as life and lawyers in early Arkansas, Pike's
adventures as a young man, the importance of books, the wrongs
committed against Native Americans, and much more. Returning his
friendship, Vinnie played and sang for Pike, wrote poetry to him,
and sculpted a bust of Pike which is one of the best ever done.
Vinnie was at the center of such controversies as the attempt
to remove President Johnson after the death of Lincoln (Senator
Ross who cast the deciding vote against ouster was also a boarder
in the Ream home). If you are a Civil War buff, or have an interest
in the political life in the nation's capital following the war,
or simply want to read about a remarkable woman, this book is
for you.
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