Superb Biography, Creatively Composed
357988
Scholarly in what it delivers, but delightful in how it delivers what it delivers, COGITO ERGO SUM is highly informative and fun to read. Touching on all the key places, players, and events in the philosopher's life,Watson tells us (at least) as much as we want to know about Descartes as he cuts through the myths that have been passed down to us about him. This meant dissociating his biography from the still-operative hagiographic traditions: the French Catholic apologetic tradition and the scientific apologetic tradition. The result is a skeptical biography, full of distrust toward tradition and authority, written very much in the spirit of methodical doubt practiced by its subject. At the same time, COGITO ERGO SUM is wonderfully readable, humane, engaged, and funny. By destroying the monument called Descartes, Watson has unveiled the man who, it might have been suspected, turns out to be a much more compelling, complex, human, and interesting Descartes than we have known in the past. COGITO ERGO SUM is for specialists, general readers, and just about anyone interested in biography and imaginative prose writing.
2131357
Historian Christopher Hibbert brings his considerable talent  for writing personal biographies to the fascinating subject of Britain's King George III.  Not only is Hibbert's scholarship solid, but he also does a wonderful jo of combining all the important elements of the King's life into an entertaining and compelling read.  George III was on the throne for almost 60 years during a period of great social and political upheaval throughout the western world, yet many don't know much about him.  Americans especially know little more about him that the tyranical caricature popularized during the American Revolution.
The book begins with a chapter about the King's dissolute father whose personality and relationship with his family were remarkably similar to that of George III's own son, the future George IV.  Hibbert establishes George III's own unique personality by examing both his early upbringing and the key political players who helped shape his dedication to duty.  George III certainly lacked the flamboyance of both his father and son.  In contrast, he was sober and prudish, but nevertheless quite interesting and complex.  During his reign he weathered both the American and French Revolutions, long periods of war abroad, and various periods of political unrest at home.  Throughout, Hibbert paints a portrait of a monarch selflessly concerned about his subjects and dedication to providing thoughtful leadership.  As for his personal life, the King was faithfully resigned to an arranged marriage with a rather plain and increasingly unpleasant woman with whom he had 15 children.  The family dynamics make for great reading.  His relationships with most of his sons were difficult and a sources of much frustration since they frequently refused to comply with his strict mandates.  His many daughters were mostly confined to the royal household and were expected to wait attendance on the King and Queen.  A few daughters managed to ecape into marriage late in life, and others had scandalous love affairs with the King's courtiers.  All of this family drama was further acerbated by the mysterious "madness" that George III began to suffer from periodically in his middle age.  By the time the madness begins, Hibbert has done such a wonderful job of establishing the King's decency and dignity that the reader cannot help but be moved as these very qualities are brutally stripped away by his disease.  Also, there is an appreciation of the magnitude of the political crisis it precipitated.
My one complaint about this book is that, at least in this American's opinion, Hibbert almost completely glosses over the American Revolution.  His general analysis - that the Americans unjustly demonized the King - has some merit, but it virtually ignores the significant economic and social changes  that created the Revolution.  Perhaps such political theory is beyond the scope of this personal biography, but it should be examined more thoroughly, not only with regards to the American Revolution but also with regards to how these changes were successfully integrated into the British constitutional monarchy.
42411
Roland Trenary's 'ghosted' autobiography of the remarkable American illustrator Mahlon Blaine is a remarkable feat in itself. Trenary's authority on Blaine's life and art brings the artist 'to life' in a way that is vivid, poignant, and utterly believable. The episodic chapters jump like memories or dreams back a decade, or forward three decades, then back to childhood - but Blaine's voice remains clear and his vision more than perceptive. A host of personalities whose life-paths crossed Blaine's are studded throughout: John Steinbeck, John Carradine, Paul Muni, Joseph Dunninger - and even Robert Zimmerman and Woody Guthrie! We also glimpse the book publishers of yore, such as Jack Brussel, Biblio & Tannen, John Day and Robert McBride, who had the taste and nerve to have their books graced by Mahlon Blaine. A generous number of Blaine's artworks complement the chapters, with many previously-unseen works reproduced. This is an inspired homage to one of the great book illustrators and artists of the 20th Century.
1645551
Probably the best biography of poet I have ever read.  Extraordinarily well researched and with some compelling insights into the sources of Eliot's inspiration and his creative process. While pulling no punches when looking at Eliot's less-than-generous relationships with many other writers and his disastrous long-lasting first marriage, it keeps the emphasis away from the "gossipy" aspects of Eliot's personality and focuses relentlessly on his poems and what he though about them. It also makes understandable (just) Eliot's very peculiar relationship with the church. The source bibliography is invaluable and shows the depth of Mr. Ackroyd's background research.  A biography of a creative writer that only another creative writer can deliver.
2719330
There have NOT been enough biographies of Alexander Hamilton, and Ron Chernow has restored this often maligned founding father into his deserved spotlight. The marvelous opening passage describes the longings of Hamilton's widow, Elizabeth, for her husband who had died nearly 50 years previously. This romantic image sets the tone for this brilliant book, as it explores the heart as well as the mind of Alexander Hamilton.
For those who do not know, Hamilton was not merely a capitalist and economist who happened to die in a duel with Aaron Burr. True, he was the founder of The Bank of New York and was America's first Secretary of the Treasury. But Hamilton was also a tireless abolitionist, a brilliant lawyer and writer, General Washington's right-hand-man, a war hero, founder of the New York Post, and a swash-buckling romantic. Taken on their own, these achievements are amazing enough, but given the enormous obstacles and tragedies he had to overcome during his youth, it's just mindboggling. To take it a step further, he accomplished all this in just 49 years, which was his age at the time of his death.
A life as full, as dramatic, as IMPORTANT as Alexander Hamilton's deserves volumes. Ron Chernow's extensive biography is a long book but, even so, the amazing life he is describing requires such length. And, to Chernow's credit, the book achieves just the right balance of admiration and criticism, romanticism and realism, speculation and fact. Hamilton's life swung between often contradictory ideas and emotions, and Chernow presents them all to us, rather than sticking with one overriding image. ALEXANDER HAMILTON by Ron Chernow is perhaps the most important book written about the nascent years of our country since Ellis' FOUNDING BROTHERS, which would make an excellent companion to this book. I would also strongly recommend McCullough's JOHN ADAMS, as well.
4896322
As is well known, Adolf Hitler remains one of the most notorious personalities of all time: even now, a lifetime after his death and universally reviled by all significant authorities, he probably commands more attention than any other non-American politician in recent history. Seemingly every year there is a new book -- Often several -- about the German dictator advertised in the papers, and many more that do not reach a mass audience for being too abstruse, too scholarly, or written in non-English languages.

Alas, to keep track of this vast literature is more than one can expect even of professional historians, unless dedicated specifically to that task. Even perusing the massive, thousand-plus-page biographies of such authors as Alan Bullock, Joachim Fest, Ian Kershaw, or John Toland (the lattermost is the best of these, in this reviewer's opinion) can be a daunting task. The casual reader who wishes merely to learn a little about this terror of the 20th century to satisfy his curiosity is liable to be swamped in the morass of wordy publications.

Such a reader is well served in turning to this little-known but tremendously under-rated book.

In one elegant volume of less than four hundred pages, Colin Cross produces a better understanding of Hitler than, for example, Ian Kershaw manages in his cyclopean tome. Eminently lucid, scrupulously objective, surprisingly insightful, and meticulously adherent to the documentary record while also providing a human touch through select application of the personal views of contemporaries, Cross's brief biography must be considered one of the finest works in a very crowded field. That it is not more widely praised than it is (and no longer in print) is nothing short of incomprehensible to yours truly.

Cross shows Hitler in a carefully and sensitively nuanced portrait. He does not fall prey to the all-too-common temptation to belittle Hitler as a lunatic or fool, and neither does he demonize him as an Antichrist figure: on the contrary, he shows a usually very capable, sometimes idiosyncratic, often charismatic, always passionate German nationalist -- Thereby going some way toward explaining how so many intelligent men and women could believe in Hitler, and how he could initially be so successful in international politics. Also, he shows this radical ideologist, Machiavellian statesman and ruthless warlord as a human being, with human interests and concerns (such as family rows, girlfriends, reading habits, occasional hypochondria). At the same time, he in no wise presents an apology for the German dictator. On the contrary, Hitler's aggressive foreign policy, virulent racism, and other negative traits are shown with proper emphasis.

As Cross is writing a popular biography, he bases his account entirely on published sources, ranging from documents and histories to personal memoirs. While this presents an obvious limitation, I have noticed no startling omissions, as compared to the more comprehensive works of others. (Indeed, through using certain nowadays somewhat obscure German-language sources, Cross provides several interesting pieces of information which Kershaw either missed or chose not to include in his more recent, far lengthier account.) Given that the book is now somewhat dated, a few errors do creep in as well -- For example, some distortions about Hitler's teen-age years that stem from the Austrian amateur researcher Franz Jetzinger's influential book on that subject -- but they do not appreciably affect the general picture.

In all, Cross's biography is without comparison the finest brief English-language introduction to Hitler of which I am aware, and of interest even to those who consider themselves well-read in the field. It is thus heartily recommended to all prospective readers, but especially to casual or beginning students interested in its subject.
550858
Im often disappointed by biographies, I think because they're a very difficult genre to get right.  Synthesizing an entire life in a single volume isn't the difficult part; its making that life seem compelling regardless of any investment the reader may or may not have in the individual being chronicled.  This task is, in my opinion, doubly hard when the biography in question focuses on a scientist, as the author needs to not only accomplish the above, but must also understand and distill the scientists work for a lay audience.

I picked up I Died For Beauty on the $1 shelf at Chapters solely because it was a biography of a woman in science Id never heard of: Dorothy Wrinch. Mathematician, crystallographer, biochemist, controversial theorist, distracted mother, multidisciplinarian in an era when specialization was king, Wrinchs steadfast confidence in her protein architecture model inspired countless biologists and chemists to advance the field at a time when proteins might otherwise have languished on the back burner of science.  She toiled obstinantly for decades amidst constant criticism and setbacks, one of those unsung heroes of science who recieve little acclaim for their contributions.

Not only is this a rollicking good biography that never found me skimming paragraphs to get to the more interesting bits, its an excellent time capsule of a curious era, when computers were highly skilled human calculators, when women were considered intellectually inferior even in the face of higher exam scores and greater contributions than their male colleagues, and when war never quite stopped looming on the horizon.  Senechal has a highly enjoyable writing style, both in general narrative structure and on a purely sentence level (no clunky phrases here!), and is a deft touch with humour.  A couple of chapters go off the beaten path stylistically, and where a lesser author might devolve into stunt writing, Senechals decisions are great fun, especially in Chapter 16, where she presents the academic battle between Wrinch and Linus Pauling as the opera it deserves to be, set direction and all.  Instead of choosing a linear narrative, or even a back-and-forth overview, Senechal writes in grand circles, tying everything together again and again without losing control of the interior threads or the overarching narrative.  Wrinch could easily have been cast as a tragic, downtrodden figure, given the givens of her life, but Senechal portrays her as the passionate, flawed, vivacious pathbreaker she truly was.

A thoroughly delightful biography, and an enormously educational addition to the history of science.
4656486
This rich study and biographical account has everything you would hope to find in a work of this nature: originality, balance, insight, intuition, splendidly crafted prose, human frailty, and exhaustive historical research. And a good story, to boot! In short, the kind of book one is loath to put down at the end of the day, or to finish. We are indebted to the author for bringing to light this remarkable Colonial American, whose contribution to the early history of American (and especially Virginian) life has been largely overlooked, at least up to now. No historical account of Colonial America, slavery in America, of Colonial Virginia can ignore this most welcomed contribution. One quibble with the paperback edition: though portraits of Carter, his wife and other principal characters in the book are mentioned from time to time, none have been provided. Could we also have maps showing the location of Carter's plantations (and of Colonial Virginia in general) and illustrations of his various homes?
4628275
Many people might think, "What, another biography of Satchmo?"  Or some might back away from the whole notion of a biography of a jazz musician, "Only for those jazz nuts, those guys who collect those old records with all the scratches on them."  WRONG.  Riccardi's book is not a splendid jazz biography: it is a splendid biography, comfortably written and deeply researched without a hint of academic stuffiness.  It is, first, the story of a man in love with his art, and determined to perform and create at the highest level he could -- no matter what the critics, the journalists, or some disgruntled musicians might say.  All of this after he had already established a worldwide reputation as the best in his field -- at a time in life when other artists complacently turn out copies of their finer earlier work.  Dismissed as an unsophisticated primitive player, a racial buffoon, a good-natured clown, Armstrong worked harder and pleased more people in the last 25 years of his life than he had before.  This is a great book because it balances the public man and the private one -- and in the latter case, Riccardi has wisely used material no one else had known about (private letters and tape recordings, interviews with Armstrong's contemporaries) to great effect.  The whole man is on view in these pages, and even if you know very little of Armstrong -- perhaps especially if you know little -- this book is an invaluable exploration of what it means to be an artist working in public, an African-American man in the last half of the twentieth century.  And the book is (dare one say this) a lot of fun -- Louis had "a lot of livin' to do" and he did it with great love and enthusiasm.  Love and enthusiasm uplift this book, which is both an exciting page-turner and a deep exploration.
3396923
Probably the best biography I have ever read! I was impressed enough that I will seek out his bio of Einstein. Jobs is not a person I could have ever worked for as his consideration of others was pretty non-existent and frankly I doubt the lack of that quality contributed to his success despite his belief that he had to be a a "teller of truth". But his amazing imagination, his ability to motivate people, and his legendary focus were big contributors to his success. His desire to be where the humanities intersect with technology led to some of the most amazing creations of our time and the company he built is a spectacular monument to a unique individual. The book was created with Job's assistance and with access to an unusual amount of information that a biographer might not normally see. The writing style makes for easy reading and for anyone who has followed the development of the electronics industry over the last 30 years, the book offers some great insights.
1562042
I've read all of Styron's fiction and all his published nonfiction, and was happy to find out that this biography explores in detail the mind of the writer who has created such beautiful, enduring prose. Author West has had unusual access to working papers, unpublished works, and early drafts  of Styron's well-known books, and is able to illustrate how the changes  Styron made during the editing process reveals his character. You couldn't  ask for a more deeply felt biography. In contrast to the main review on  this page, I also felt that this was one of the only biographies I've read  in which the connection between the subject's childhood and writing was  made clear. If the only book of Styron's you've read is the excellent  Sophie's Choice, this biography may give you more information than you  want. If you have more of an interest in Styron's other writing, this book  is a fascinating adjunct. By the biography's end, you feel you know Styron  and you hope he completes the "Marine novel" he's been working on  for so long.
906551
An exemplary piece of biographical writing.  Kanigel brings Ramanujan, his times, and his contemporaries vividly to life.  I wish even more of Ramanujan's mathematical contributions had been treated, but appreciate that a biographer has many priorities.  Kanigel handles them all deftly.  One of the finest (most informative and engaging) biographies I've ever read.
2058661
When I opened Ackroyd's biography of Sir Thomas More many years ago, and read the pages in which he imagines how his subject wended his way to school through late 15th century London and what he saw and encountered on his way, I was stunned by his uncanny ability to create, de facto, two characters: More and London itself. Happily for us all, he has gone on to write a series of three books that really do serve as "biographies of place", if such a phrase exists. The first was&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/London-The-Biography/dp/0385497717/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">London: The Biography</a>, the second,&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Albion-Origins-of-the-English-Imagination/dp/0385497725/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Albion: Origins of the English Imagination</a>, a tour de force of what is distinctively English. The third in the series is this biography of the Thames River. However unlikely the subject, the book is easily the equal of anything else this eclectic and accomplished author has produced.
As anyone who has ever flown into Heathrow airport across the span of London has seen first hand, the river twists like a silver ribbon throughout the city of London, and leads onward to the sea and up into the heart of the country. Ackroyd's narrative is as sparkling as water should be and thankfully not as sludgy as that of the Thames in London itself too often still is, and takes nearly as many twists and turns in describing its subjects.
Ackroyd, for instance, delves into the symbolic meaning and physical construction of bridges across the Thames, from the earliest days, to the medieval London Bridge and on to the present. The Magna Carta -- the base document on which Anglo-American democracy was founded -- was signed in a meadow by the Thames some 800 years ago. Centuries later, the London docks helped establish London as the center of a commercial empire and were the departure point for generations of explorers, from Raleigh and Drake onwards. (Some of those vessels are still moored for visitors to explore along the banks.) From riverside pubs (although my personal London favorite, the Prospect of Whitby, doesn't rate a mention) to gardens, the river was a place of recreation. But it was also a place of death; just as Anne Boleyn rode along it in barges alongside Henry VIII, she later traveled to her execution in the Tower of London on the Thames, a route followed by her daughter, Elizabeth I, two decades later (to a happier outcome.) Traitors' heads were routinely displayed on London Bridge for all to see; the tale is that Margaret Roper, Thomas More's daughter, removed her father's head from a spike there after his beheading.
It's to be hoped that the City of London and all the other towns and cities that lie along the length of the Thames are suitably grateful to Peter Ackroyd for this elegant and beautifully written book. It's impossible to imagine that it won't create a sudden spike in tourism to the Thames Valley among as many readers as it reaches. I'm already planning my spring visit to a friend there. His home? Well, it's a modern condo built within an old Bermondsey wharf building and from the balcony overhanging the river, I can hear the sound of the water and watch all the watercraft travel between Westminster and Greenwich. And yes, I'll be packing this book to re-read while I sit there...
1450420
Adding The Emperor of Nature to your "must read" list will be one resolution that you will find a joy to keep. The author's graceful style in this scholarly, yet never pedantic, biography of the complex, heretofore little recognized naturalist and ornithologist, Charles-Lucien Bonaparte, is sparked by insightful and witty asides. Players in this intellectual and political history--the contraversial Bonaparte family, both its men and women, James Audubon, Thomas Say and other natural historians--emerge as distinct personalities as we read Bonaparte's lively--often impassioned--correspondence. The drama of Bonaparte's life, marked by his lifelong dedication to the science of natural history, is deftly enhanced by rich descriptive detail as each "scene is set". Equal attention is given to the underbrush of family and scientific disputes and jealousies, to the complications of early 19th century travel and the preservation of specimens, and to physical and psychological health issues. The abundant illustrations throughout, including many from the author's own collection, (it is always so disappointing when the illustrations in a biography, no matter how erudite, are limited to a tiny center folio of tired old photographs!) were a delight to this fascinated reader.
3906074
Harriet Reisen's new biography of Louisa May Alcott provides a fresh and engaging look at the beloved author's life, that is sure to please Alcott's many fans and also win some new ones. It was written as a companion book to a PBS "American Masters" episode that is scheduled to air late in 2009. The renewed attention is very welcome, for Louisa May Alcott was a fascinating and complicated person: prodigious author (over 200 books), Feminist, Abolitionist, unmarried by choice, fiercely independent by nature, yet required by circumstances to become both the physical and the financial caretaker of her family, Alcott's personal struggle  will surely resonate with any sympathetic woman - or man! - today.

For Alcott scholars, Reisen's book offers, for the first time in print, some new quotations from the (unpublished) second volume of Madelon Bedell's interviews with Louisa May "Lulu" Nieriker Rasim, Alcott's niece, who lived  until 1975! For the rest of us, this biography of a woman, who was so much more than the author of "Little Women," provides a sympathetic and clear-eyed window into what her life may actually have felt like, to Louisa May Alcott, as she lived it. It is a fine achievement.
2007251
The other positive reviews for this book give plenty of reasons why this biography is one of the best on the market. It is definitely not for the reader looking for a straight narrative history but it cannot be beat for weaving information about the times into the life of this extraordinary man. I particularly liked: 1) the way that Warren points out the changes in Henry's personality and decision-making as he matured from a teenage adventurer to an adult whose quick anger consistently yielded to wisdom, 2) the way in which the book paints Henry's achievement of uniting (or almost uniting) very different regions, from northern England to southern France, and the balancing act he had to do to keep this grouping of different cultures functional, 3) Henry's devotion to spreading a jury and court system that is part of our lives today. It is clear in the book that Warren considers this Henry's most significant legacy and I kept thinking as I was reading it, "Wow, was this important!" 4) the way Warren carefully shows the relationship between Henry and Becket. This was especially enlightening to me raised when I was younger to think of Becket solely as a martyr/hero. "Murder in the Cathedral" is a great piece of literature but it was never intended to be anywhere near a complete portrait of the real Becket. The problem is that this brilliantly crafted snapshot is what the public comes to know. Also, in my own religious upbringing, the politics of martyrdom, which is still around, can create some very inaccurate history. There is no better explanation in print of the friendship and struggle between these two powerful personalities than Warren's book. Their story is truly , as Warren puts it, a "classic tragedy." 5) the great job Warren does of explaining Henry's relationship with his not so impressive sons. The portraits he draws of Henry the Younger, Geoffrey, Richard and John are well-defined and for me brought them to life. Henry tried to create a "federation" out of his grand unity of territories by distibuting it among his four sons and the plans of Dad went through the floor. Warren shows us why. The book has an extremely helpful glossary after the text. This is THE book on Henry II.
3304240
This is an immensely informative and entertaining biography of a man known only to a small audience.  Timothy Egan (also the author of the remarkable Dust Bowl saga, The Worst Hard Time) brings to life the story of Edward Curtis, a photographer of the North American Indian experience who traveled far and wide during the early part of the twentieth century to capture the stories, rituals, language, images, and even music of Native American tribes in the southwest, the Pacific northwest, and Canada.  Egan concludes each chapter with one or several photographs, either of Curtis himself on the trail or prints of iconic photos from the Curtis collection (hence the subtitle, The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis).  Because Curtis died in 1952 and none of his children survive today, Egan relied almost exclusively on archival materials; his interest in the subject was no doubt piqued by his own experiences living in Seattle where Curtis also lived nearly a century earlier.

The overriding image that Egan portrays is of Curtis the man obsessed with his work.  Though Curtis received funding from the philanthropist J. P. Morgan to pursue his life dream, the "big project," a 20-volume history (and anthropology) of North American Indians, this money funded only most/some expenses of the project (including from a collaborator and assistant or two), not Curtis' own salary.  As a result, Curtis relied first on commissioned photographs of wealthy benefactors in Seattle and then on frugality and grit that Egan highlights so deftly.  These powerful images crafted by Egan remind us that people who do remarkable things having lasting impact usually don't work just from 9-5; they work long hours and pour their hearts and souls into their work.

But with Curtis away from home and from his wife and four children for many months at a time to do this work, his personal life was frenzied and difficult for everyone, especially his wife who eventually divorced him.  Nonetheless, Egan describes sympathetically Curtis' late-in-life travels to Indian reservations accompanied by several of his adult daughters, who had a rare chance to see (and help) their often-absentee father do his remarkable and physically difficult work, even as he approached 60 years of age.

Egan writes the perfect biography for the general reader.  It is relatively short (about 300 pp.) and focuses squarely and consistently on Curtis the man and his Native American subjects/collaborators.  He spares us the arcane details of photography, about which most readers will not care, focusing instead on the universal human experiences of work, research, genius, and family.