The actual facts in this biography of John Brown, the ""terrible saint"", vary little from those in other books. The essential difference is in the analysis of Brown's mind, and the tender treatment of his relations with his family. Brown was a worshipper of Napoleon; he was a religious man who loved Christ. In his mind the figures merged into perfection, and he determined to combine them as the great leader of Abolition. He was fifty-four before he became a militant Abolitionist. Up to that time he was a farmer and tanner, the father of twenty children, by two wives. Whether or not the romantic moments are authentic I do not know, but they serve to mold a human being out of a madman for the reader. A good piece of work -- but the market is limited to those definitely interested in the period and the man.