Reading from the President’s Library Book Club

Read books by some of President Rutherford B. Hayes’ favorite authors and novels with modern interpretations of those stories with the Reading from the President’s Library Book Club.

This book club is a partnership between the Hayes Presidential Library & Museums and Birchard Public Library in Fremont, and is taking place in conjunction with Hayes Presidential’s latest special exhibit, “Inside President’ Hayes Library.”

The club will meet once every two months and alternate locations between Hayes Presidential and Birchard Public Library. Participation is free.

For the club’s reading list, organizers Kevin Moore, Hayes Presidential curator of artifacts, and Joan Eardly, Birchard Public Library adult reference librarian, have chosen classic books by authors that Hayes loved and modern interpretations of those books.

Participants will have about two months to reach each book. Each meeting is at 2 p.m.

The Reading from the President’s Library Book Club is sponsored by Richard & Kathy Smith.

Book selections, meeting dates and locations are:

• Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025 — “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The club will meet at Hayes Presidential. During this meeting, Moore will give participants a tour of the special exhibit “Inside President Hayes’ Library.”
• Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025 — “Hester” by Laurie Lico Albanese. In this retelling of “The Scarlet Letter,” the heroine of the book meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne in the New World. The club will meet at Birchard Public Library, 423 Croghan St., Fremont, OH.
• Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025 — “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain. The club will meet at Hayes Presidential.
• Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026 — “James” by Percival Everett. This Pulitzer Prize winning book retells the story of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the enslaved Jim. The club will meet at Birchard Public Library.
• Tuesday, April 28, 2026 — “David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens. The club will meet at Hayes Presidential.
• Tuesday, June 23, 2026 — “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingslover. This novel tells the story of a boy growing up in poverty in southern Appalachia. The club will meet at Birchard Public Library.

The books will be available for checkout at Birchard Public Library.

“I think it’s important to read books from the past, especially those considered “classics” to see what people valued at the time, and what they thought was a good story,” Eardly said. “It will be interesting to see how these stories are told by modern authors with new perspectives. We are excited to partner with Hayes Presidential for this program! Rutherford B. Hayes loved books and reading and was a founder of the Birchard Public Library.”

“Inside President Hayes’ Library” is on display through June 30, 2026. It features more than 100 of Hayes’ collection of 8,000 books that range from poetry to novels to law books. The exhibit is sponsored by the Randolph J. & Estelle M. Dorn Foundation.