The topics and organization in the book comprise characteristics well suited for a textbook.
The essay on Wilson, which opens the book (a characteristic gesture by Vidal: his megacollection of essays from 1993, "United States," likewise began with a homage to Wilson), introduces us at once to the first and most insistent of his bugbears, which is the horribleness of Abraham Lincoln.
"It is an honor to publish this extraordinary book, which is an inspiring marriage of words and images, history and story," Chip Gibson, the president and publisher of Random House Children's Books, said in a statement, adding that the book "celebrates the characteristics that unite all Americans - the potential to pursue our dreams and forge our own paths".
The book, written with characteristic honesty and wit, was perfectly timed: it was the first memoir written by someone affected by the gene since the recent advances in pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and embryo selection.
(A disclaimer in the book notes that "the characteristics of some individuals and chronology of some events have been changed").
Insular art integrated the energy of Irish Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Germanic styles of ornament with Mediterranean forms such as the book, and established many characteristics of art for the rest of the medieval period.
That oxidised taste gives the book part of its characteristic flavour.
He inhaled anew his notes and impressions of Ali and Frazier, but writing the book came with his characteristic lack of speed, working slowly on his ancient Royal typewriter.
Rather than transliterating birdsong into syllables of pseudo-English, as field guides usually do — "Weeta-wee-tee-o," says the hooded warbler — the book identifies the signature structural characteristics of each species' repertoire.
Although likely the result of the unique problems the author faced in presenting his views as a 6th-century-bce prophet to a 2nd-century-bce audience, other characteristics of The Book of Daniel, especially its pseudonymous authorship and emphasis on esoteric truths, remain essential components of apocalyptic writings.
