WATERFORD — As part of a series of presentations by local authors at the Waterford Library, Amity Shlaes will discuss her recent biography of Calvin Coolidge at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 6.

“Coolidge” is a national bestseller that debuted at number three on the New York Times list.

The biography of the 30th president, who served from 1923 to 1929, was ranked an editor’s choice at the Times and praised by the Economist magazine, which said, “Shlaes’s biography provides a window onto an unfairly tarnished period. It deserves to be widely read.”

“Silent Cal” endured much tragedy, including the death of his son during the White House years, yet he persevered. Most important of all is his remarkable record of thrift. Coolidge was a legendary budget cutter, working in partnership with his budget director, General Herbert Mayhew Lord (of Colby and Rockland, Maine).

Coolidge left office with the federal government smaller than he found it, an almost impossible feat for a peacetime president. Often portrayed as a Scrooge, Coolidge may have been sour, but as Shlaes shows, he was a Scrooge who begat plenty.

Shlaes is the author of three national bestsellers, “Coolidge,” “The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression,” and “The Greedy Hand: How Taxes Drive Americans Crazy.”

A longtime syndicated columnist and Forbes magazine writer, she directs the economic project at the George W. Bush Presidential Center and Library. She is a trustee of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation.