Former United States President Jimmy Carter
Born in 1924, Jimmy Carter became the 39th president of the United States in 1977. Visiting the intriguing Jimmy Carter Library & Museum in Atlanta feels like time travel during a tough time in US history. It was the decade when President Richard Nixon resigned, Vice-President Gerald Ford abruptly stepped in, and President Jimmy Carter was elected amid an energy crisis that included American hostages held in the Middle East. (Read about it here: Smithsonian Institution.)
His Books
Regardless of anyone’s opinion of Carter’s presidency, it is easy to recognize at least some, if not all, of the good works he pursued in his post-office career. As an author, this includes writing more than 30 books, some for children. We recommend An Hour Before Daylight, an autobiography written for an adult audience that describes the impact of his lifelong habit of getting an early jump on the day.
Check out Carter’s bibliography to see the many topics he has written about. Or browse them in person at The Carter Center in Atlanta. Be sure to read The Carter Center Blog first. Theodore Roosevelt set the record of writing 37 books. Carter may beat that.
Also visit the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site in Plains, the small country town where the peanut farmer who became a national president grew up and still spends most of his time. Into the 21st century, he continued to speak at Maranatha Baptist Church, his home church in Plains. As recently as 2019, before the Covid era, the Carters still posed for photos with visitors who traveled there to hear him speak from the pulpit.
Our Research Project
“If you had a million dollars to donate to an organization that would be the most honest and least wasteful, which one would you choose?” To answer that question, we used tools like guidestar.org (now candid.org) and charitynavigator.org, and blended in our own lessons learned.
Our research project ranked The Carter Center in Atlanta #1. And it turned out we were not the only ones who thought so, given that charitynavigator.org gave it a perfect score for “accountability and transparency.”
The Jimmy Carter Library & Museum and the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site is our eighth and tenth stops on the Georgia Author Adventures Trail.
Patricia Smart
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