_The Autobiography_ OF CALVIN COOLIDGE [Illustration: CALVIN COOLIDGE] _The Autobiography_ OF CALVIN COOLIDGE [Illustration: colophon] _New York_ COSMOPOLITAN BOOK CORPORATION 1929 COPYRIGHT 1929 CALVIN COOLIDGE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED SECOND TRADE EDITION PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. BY J. J. LITTLE & IVES CO., NEW YORK _CONTENTS_ I. SCENES OF MY CHILDHOOD 1 II. SEEKING AN EDUCATION 35 III. THE LAW AND POLITICS 81 IV. IN NATIONAL POLITICS 139 V. ON ENTERING AND LEAVING THE PRESIDENCY 169 VI. SOME OF THE DUTIES OF THE PRESIDENT 193 VII. WHY I DID NOT CHOOSE TO RUN 237 _ILLUSTRATIONS_ CALVIN COOLIDGE _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE VICTORIA JOSEPHINE (MOOR) COOLIDGE 30 _Mother of Calvin Coolidge_ COLONEL JOHN C. COOLIDGE 48 _Vermont Senate_ CALVIN COOLIDGE 66 _At the Age of Three_ CALVIN COOLIDGE 90 _Aged Seven_ CALVIN COOLIDGE 136 _At Amherst College_ GRACE GOODHUE 190 _Before Her Marriage to Calvin Coolidge_ CALVIN COOLIDGE AND HIS FAMILY 220 _The Day He Became Governor of Massachusetts_ SCENES OF MY CHILDHOOD _CHAPTER ONE_ SCENES OF MY CHILDHOOD The town of Plymouth lies on the easterly slope of the Green Mountains, about twenty miles west of the Connecticut River and somewhat south of the central part of Vermont. This part of the state is made up of a series of narrow valleys and high hills, some of which rank as mountains that must reach an elevation of at least twenty-five hundred feet. Its westerly boundary is along the summit of the main range to where it falls off into the watershed of Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River. At one point a little rill comes down a mountain until it strikes a rock, where it divides, part running north into the Ottauquechee and part south into the Black River, both of which later turn easterly to reach the Connecticut.