Conservative media mogul Glenn Beck acknowledged Wednesday that a copy of “Don Quixote” he owns was not purchased by George Washington on the day he signed the Constitution, as Beck previously claimed.
But he insisted in a statement to The Huffington Post that “the copy in my possession is from the private library of George Washington.”
“I have incorrectly stated that my copy is the copy that Washington purchased the day he signed the Constitution,” Beck said. “That version is one of the copies owned and housed in Mount Vernon. I take full responsibility for connecting my book (which is dated 1796) to the book Washington purchased that fateful day of September 17th, 1787. But make no mistake the copy in my possession is from the private library of George Washington.”
Beck has been carrying the copy of “Don Quixote” around while stumping for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). He even let a member of the audience hold the book at one campaign stop, according to The Huffington Post.
“He wrote two lines [in his diary] on the day of the signing of the Constitution,” Beck said of Washington at an event on Jan. 30 in Ames, Iowa. “First line: ‘Signed the Constitution today.’ Second line: ‘I pick up my copy of Don Quixote.’ This is his copy of Don Quixote that he picked up that day.”
But the museum at Mount Vernon, Washington’s Virginia home, denied that Beck owns the copy the former President purchased on Sept. 17, 1787.
A museum representative told The Huffington Post that the copy Washington purchased the day he signed the Constitution was stored in the rare books vault at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington. The museum even tweeted a photo of it:
Washington bought the book Don Quixote on 9/17/1787, the day the Constitution was signed. It’s still housed @GWBooks pic.twitter.com/4JPfQOrCKG — Mount Vernon (@MountVernon) February 23, 2016
As for Beck’s claim that he does own another of Washington’s copies of “Don Quixote,” the Mount Vernon spokeswoman told The Huffington Post she would need to see the copy in person to authenticate it and verify that it was Washington’s.
