America the beautiful

by Lynn Sherr

We've all sung it a thousand times, and most of us know at least the first verse by heart. It has been called a hymn, a prayer, our unofficial national anthem -- in short, "the national heartbeat set to music." It is "America the Beautiful," the song that has expressed the dreams of Americans from Ray Charles to Elvis Presley, from eager immigrants to hopeful graduates, from the battlefields of World War I to the playing fields of the Super Bowl. "America the Beautiful" came together in a confluence of good luck and sheer good will. In this first full biography of the song Americans love to sing, Lynn Sherr reveals the dramatic story behind its unlikely creation. She profiles the New England poet, Katharine Lee Bates, who composed the verse after an inspirational trek to the top of Pikes Peak, Colorado. She introduces us to Samuel Augustus Ward, who conceived the melody in a moment of Victorian inspiration after a trip to Coney Island. Katharine and Sam never met -- never even communic