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Dan's Reviews > The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher
The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher
by
by
Henry Ward Beecher
I read this Pulitzer winning biography more than a decade ago now.
I remembering the writing and research were top notch but I simply didn’t like the subject of the biography - Beecher himself - so no fault of the author.
Actually it would have been a much better bio if Beecher had been a villain or an anti-hero. I just found him to be blah. I wasn’t disgusted or surprised by him nor did I think he was interesting. The ministry is not my thing so one strike right there. Strike two is that there is no audio of his oratory prowess and his writings are too flowery and Victorian for my liking.
The last strike and most important one is that his problems seemed so mundane. Even the ones that were self inflicted. I mean come on - adultery. Yes I know it was the trial of the century but that era seems so fake and pretentious.
Does one really believe that a persuasive man in such a position of authority of so many years and a man who spent nearly every day of his life traveling around the country speaking to great applause and adoration - was going to remain faithful? I suspect that he made his calculation very early on that this was how he was going to behave.
3.5 stars
I read this Pulitzer winning biography more than a decade ago now.
I remembering the writing and research were top notch but I simply didn’t like the subject of the biography - Beecher himself - so no fault of the author.
Actually it would have been a much better bio if Beecher had been a villain or an anti-hero. I just found him to be blah. I wasn’t disgusted or surprised by him nor did I think he was interesting. The ministry is not my thing so one strike right there. Strike two is that there is no audio of his oratory prowess and his writings are too flowery and Victorian for my liking.
The last strike and most important one is that his problems seemed so mundane. Even the ones that were self inflicted. I mean come on - adultery. Yes I know it was the trial of the century but that era seems so fake and pretentious.
Does one really believe that a persuasive man in such a position of authority of so many years and a man who spent nearly every day of his life traveling around the country speaking to great applause and adoration - was going to remain faithful? I suspect that he made his calculation very early on that this was how he was going to behave.
3.5 stars
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