Coming to bookstores
May 23rd, 2006

Wisdom of
Our Fathers

The perfect gift!

Lessons and Letters
from Daughters and Sons
Thank you America for saluting fatherhood!.............Thank you America for saluting fatherhood!.............

A letter from Tim!

 TIM RUSSERT
Post Office Box 5999
Washington DC 20016
MyDad@Wisdomofourfathers.com

Dear Reader,
In the spring of 2004, I published a book about my father--about the lessons I have learned from him, the way he has influenced me, and my enormous love and respect for this steady, hardworking, and modest man. Big Russ and Me came out in May, and my publisher sent me on a publicity tour in the hope that people around the country would see the book as an ideal Father's Day gift.
Early in the tour I was in Chicago, where to my great relief, customers were lining up to buy the book and have me autograph it. What happened next really surprised me.
"Make it out to Big Mike" somebody told me, which was followed in rapid succession by,
"This is for Big Mario"
"Please inscribe it out to Big Manuel."
"For Big Irv."
"Big Willie"
"Big Stan"
I had expected that my book would appeal to readers in my home town of Buffalo, New York, but I didn't know whether the story of a young man coming of age in a blue-collar Irish-Catholic neighborhood, whose father was a truck driver and a sanitation man, would strike a cord with a wider audience. As soon as I discovered there were many Big Russes out there--good, industrious, and patriotic men who has a lot in common with my dad, even if they didn't share his religion or his heritage. By writing a book about my father, I was affirming not only his life, but the lives of many other fathers as well.
I realized early on that the book was resonating far beyond what I had anticipated. Without intending to, I had given many readers an opportunity--an invitation, really, to talk about their fathers. They had listened to my story, and now I was listening to theirs.
I didn't think I would write another book. But when I read the letters I received from readers, I realized I had no choice.
I received close to sixty thousand letters and e-emails, and I read them all.
Most of the readers you read about in this book are not super dads. They are, by and large, ordinary men with the normal distribution of human flaws and shortcomings, regular dads who try hard and sometimes succeed. What you will read here are vivid accounts of their best moments. In many cases, these fathers would be surprised, and maybe even shocked, to discover that this is what their son or daughter has remembered. But you really never know how your words or your actions will affect your children. What will they say about you when you are gone? What moment will they remember? What will they tell your children about you?
I think of this book as kind of a full voiced choir, a chorus of voices coming together from around the country, expressing their deep and well-deserved gratitude to the first man they ever really knew. For many years, fathers who have said or done things that may not always have made sense to their children have found themselves saying, or thinking, just as their fathers had, "Some day you'll thank me." For most of the fathers, whose sons and daughters wrote the stories you are about to read, that day is finally here.

Sincerely,

Tim Russert

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