ISBN: 0385513968
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Summary: Beecher Brought to Life: The First Casualty of the First Gilded Age
Debby Applegate's "The Most Famous Man in America" is everything a biography should be. Henry Ward Beecher's life and career are chronologized without undue sentimentality and are described carefully within the context of his era, infused with references to parallel events and to the great figures of the 19th century. The author thus adds historical flavor without borrowing from a focus on her subject, who emerges in the end (in a 20th-century context) as an odd admixture of Billy Graham and Bill Clinton.
Dr. Applegate (a graduate student-turned-professor of American studies at Yale) manages to accomplish even more in her book. Beecher at once appears as the book's subject, a historical figure of note, and as the lead character in a real-life drama that would be almost as stimulating if the book were fiction. It takes great writing skill to bring this off, and she succeeds in spades.
Henry Ward Beecher was born 13 years into the 19th century and died 13 years before its end. He knew the heartache of early 19th-century life, losing his mother while a toddler and coping with the severity of his doctrinaire environment...his father being the Calvinist preacher Lyman Beecher. Hardly a brilliant student, Henry was quickly overshadowed by more gifted siblings, notably his older sister Harriet, who would later author the classic anti-slavery novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin."
But Henry had a captivating personality and a right-brained intelligence, both of which stood out in his large family. He was a mimic and prankster who threw spitballs at his teacher. Even in a pre-Freudian era Beecher's behavior could be interpreted as a craving for love and attention. He somehow managed to graduate from Amherst without distinction (the author was summa cum laude at the same school) and from his father's own seminary in Cincinnati, which led to an early career as a Protestant minister in Indiana. From the beginning Henry Ward departed from Lyman's theology of original sin, emphasizing instead the power of God's love.
Beecher's great skill was oratory. Throughout his pastoral career he was a lackluster administrator and (surprisingly, given his compassionate nature) lazy about visiting his flock to offer one-on-one spiritual care. But he was spellbinding in the pulpit, which in the mid-19th century became his key to success. The era was dominated by the debate over slavery and by men who rose to fame as stump speakers (Beecher's contemporary Abraham Lincoln being the best example among many). When Beecher left Indiana to serve the new Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, his gift for oratory and willingness to mix theology with politics (a daring act even today for any pastor) brought him immediate fame. Beecher was a magnetic figure whose career path happened to coincide with New York's strongest economic growth and with a national spiritual awakening.
Eventually, Beecher's need for affection and approval compromised his legacy. Around 1870 he had an affair with a female parishioner (probably with several, in fact, but only one dalliance became a cause celebre). Theretofore Beecher had been the Billy Graham of his day, thenceforth he became Bill Clinton. Dr. Applegate gives us the whole story without moralizing. With the hindsight available in 2006, it's possible to associate Beecher's fate with the years in which the brouhaha arose; all Gilded Ages since have been consistent in penalizing sexual misconduct while treating financial crimes with benign neglect.
Summary: A fascinating biography of an extraordinary man, written in a bland, sepia-toned prose.
Debby Applegate's biography of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, "The Most Famous Man in America", has received nearly unanimous acclaim and an abundance of praise from reviewers. Much of it is well deserved. The book captivates, and the readers succumb to its thrall not because of the sheer writing ability of the author, but because of the charming, compassionate, extraordinary and powerful personality of the preacher.
We could perhaps rightfully consider Henry Beecher (1813 - 1887) one of the earliest proponents of liberalism, if not the father of the modern Liberal Philosophy. He was an abolitionist who preached the gospel of love and the novel but much reviled concept of equality among men; and among men he regarded as friends were four staunch abolitionists- Lincoln, Emerson, Grant, and Mark Twain. His sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote the memorable "Uncle Tom's Cabin", was an abolitionist also. He preached that God was compassionate and loving, who readily forgave all our sins, and that life is meant to be a pleasurable, joyful experience. And he truly believed that seeking earthly pleasures was no bar to heaven, and that experiencing sensual pleasures was most certainly not sinful. Famous for his oratory and flashy clothes, he loved jewelry so much that he always carried a few unset gems with him. And like Imelda Marcos, he loved to shop. People from Manhattan flocked to his Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights to listen to his mesmerizing sermons.
He had an eye for female beauties, a weakness for feminine charms, and a need for female companionship so great that he sought solace in the embrace of his female congregants, even though the congregants were married. The author has written about three such affairs, and as a result of one affair with a woman named Chloe, he might even have produced a daughter named Violet who bore a strong resemblance to him. The author implies that his wife, Eunice, nagged him at home, and as a result he sought solace away from his wife and home, in the company of married women. In 1874, at the age of 61, he was indicted and tried for having a "criminal conversation" (adulterous affair) with one of his congregants, Mrs. Elizabeth Tilton, wife of his best friend, Theodore Tilton. The jury was not persuaded, and so he was acquitted.
After the trial, in his twilight years, Henry lost his prestige and much of his luster. Although he continued to preach and write articles for newspapers, he never regained his stature, and in 1887 he died of a broken heart at age 73.
The author states that Henry Beecher's marriage was loveless. That raises an interesting question: If he could indeed produce twelve children in a loveless marriage, how many more would he have produced, had he truly loved his wife?
Finally, I wish to say a few words about the author's prose. I am aware that I might sound like the lone voice in a choir that sings slightly off-pitch; but I must be truthful to myself and, like the Dixie Chicks I must say what I mean, and mean what I say. This book is written in a prose so relentlessly bland that it has the eerie aura of an ancient Tibetan painting rendered in sepia tones only. The book, nevertheless, is fascinating because of the colorful and likable personality of Henry Beecher. Here is a paragraph I picked at random to illustrate my point: "The older "respectable" men of the town still strolled the streets in outdated colonial garb, clad in short breeches buckled at the knee, tricornered hats, cutaway coats, and the occasional powdered wig. Only Democrats and infidels, it was said, wore pantaloons, or trousers as they came to be called. With deliberate symbolism the Congregational meetinghouse stood in the dead center of the common at the very summit of a hill, and from its old- fashioned swallow's-nest pulpit the Reverend Beecher ruled over the manners and morals of the town."
But, on the whole, the book is engaging, and the subject fascinating, and it is well worth reading.
Summary: Excellent, but ...
I agree with other reviewers that this is an outstanding biography. Debby Applegate brings an obscure character, and the people and events around him, into clear focus. Her writing is strong -- clear and confident, and occasionally rather striking. Her research and her grasp of the period are astonishing. She certainly seems to have it in her to write a great biography -- but this isn't quite it.
The problem is that it appears to be three books stitched together, quite different in style and method, though of course hanging together in terms of subject and authorship.
The first book carries Beecher into the beginnings of his career, roughly into his starting years in Brooklyn. This portion of the biography is the best in terms of biographical art. Ms. Applegate brings Beecher to life in the context of his family, his surroundings, and other elements of those times. We see him as, one can imagine, he might have seen himself. The focus stays on Beecher, and we have a rich sense of his inner life. This is brilliant biography.
The second "book" in this volume deals mainly with Beecher in his relationship with the slavery issue, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. This portion of the book, though very good in terms of historical content, is not as good biography, because our view has panned back. Though Beecher is still the focal point, our view of him is more distant. We now see him less and less from the inside, and see him more as an actor on the stage. We still catch glimpses of his inner life, and we still sympathize with him and root for him, but our sense of intimacy with him has slipped considerably.
The final "book" is a potboiler about Beecher's sex life and the trouble it got him into. This is a great story, well worth telling (and reading!), but in this part Beecher is further demoted to being one of multiple characters we are following in the story. If this had been a biography of, say, Theodore Tilton, it is not clear that this part of the text would have had to be changed at all. We are now no more inside of Beecher's mind and heart than we are inside the rest of the large cast in the story. In addition, in the context of the biography, it goes on way too long. Given the new material she found, this was probably a temptation too juicy to resist, but as much fun as it is to read this story, it throws the whole biography out of balance, as if this one episode was, roughly, 20% of what his life was about (it wasn't). It would have been better to write these details in some historical monograph, or perhaps another book. Yet, I write this as a lover and critic of biography. This is probably the part of the book that is going to make it a big seller, and (as Beecher himself knew) this is an important part of authorship. So I criticize the art, but appreciate the decision.
Notwithstanding all this, it remains an Excellent book, and a surprisingly good read. But only the first half is great biography.
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