Released on = August 20, 2006, 11:55 am

Press Release Author = Feather Schwartz Foster

Industry =

Press Release Summary = Novel \"Garfield\'s Train\" Recreates the assassination and
death of President James Garfield in 1881, on September 19th.

Press Release Body = September 19 will be the 125th anniversary of the death of
James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, shot by an assassin, and
then dying in Long Branch, New Jersey after three months of suffering and pain.

"Garfield's Train," a novel by NJ author Feather Schwartz Foster, recreates the
political and social atmosphere in Long Branch, where the dying president was taken
to ease his final days.

Few people today realize the enormity of the U.S. political scene in the 1880s -
those heady days between the Civil War and the start of the 20th Century! Those
were the days powered by the "Robber Barons" of Mark Twain's Gilded Age. And if the
era was the Gilded Age, then Long Branch, New Jersey was the "Gilded Strand," where
the wealthy and famous came to enjoy their summers.

Feather Schwartz Foster offers a glimpse of that era of sprawling 30-room "cottages"
in her new novel, "Garfield's Train." The fictional Dunbar family interacts with
such characters as General Grant, Roscoe Conkling, James G. Blaine, and, of course,
the Garfield family in the early 1880s.

James A. Garfield was only president for six months - three of which were spent
dying. To finally escape the fetid and miserable heat of the Washington summer and
offer the dying man some respite, he was brought to Long Branch for his last days.
In a burst of patriotism, caring and community spirit, a ¾ mile railroad spur was
built overnight for the President to be brought from the train station right to the
door of a cottage-by-the-sea without painful jostling in a wagon over a rutted road.

According to the author, "This was arguably Long Branch's proudest hours, and for
some reason, it has become a mere footnote to history. The actual historical
records only indicate that it happened - not how it happened. In 'Garfield's
Train', I tried to draw the picture in my mind of the entire posh resort and the way
the 3,000 residents turned out to support the railroad workers in their labor of
love and patriotism.

Feather Schwartz Foster has also written "LADIES: A Conjecture of Personalities"
about the First Ladies between Martha Washington and Mamie Eisenhower, and an
e-book, entitled "On The Road With The Old Gals," about her lecturing experiences.
A children's "chapter" book, "T: An Auto-Biography," about a Model-T Ford, will be
available shortly. She has made more than 100 appearances in the New Jersey area
talking about the "old" First Ladies, and has already been engaged for several more
about the Garfield era.

Author Feather Schwartz Foster has been an "amateur" presidential historian for
three decades. Following a long career in advertising and having written a score of
children's musical shows, she has decided to draw on her thousand-volume personal
presidential library and her love of history by penning "LADIES: A Conjecture of
Personalities" and "Garfield's Train".

"Garfield's Train" (ISBN: 1-4137-6915-2) is 226-pages, is available at most online
booksellers, or through the author's webpage at www.featherfoster.com.



NOTE TO EDITOR/PROGRAM DIRECTOR: Ms. Foster may be reached for interviews at
908/753-6999, or at fsf@comcast.net.




Web Site = http://www.featherfoster.com

Contact Details = Feather Schwartz Foster
Box 524
Fanwood, NJ 07023
908-753-6999
fsf@comcast
www.featherfoster.com