WILL YOU SIGN HERE, JOHN HANCOCK?

Jean Fritz goes rolling along, and we merrily after, through yet another fizzy tribute to our Founding Fathers. Unlike Ben Franklin (see above) who can't be pigeonholed, John Hancock is a pushover for the Fritz method. The most vulnerable, and humanizing, aspect of Hancock was clearly his overweening vanity, and Fritz plays the characteristic from every angle—an inventory of Hancock's nine fancy carriages; comparison of his increasingly grandiose signatures; even Hancock's own description of having to "Ruff it" during the war by doing without a candle snuffer and dining on tough turkey. Later Hancock, who had aspired to be Commander-in-Chief, retires his "slender constitution" from the military after one disastrous battle to apply himself to the heroic task of entertaining volunteer French officers. Trina Schart Hyman applies her confectioner's touch to the dandified goings on, and her caricatures of Hancock—looking appropriately pompous, outraged, or chagrined—catch the mood of affectionate iconoclasm.