The editor's technique is to go through a subject's diaries, letters and public speeches. Yale University offers a rich...

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THE GEORGE WASHINGTON PAPERS

The editor's technique is to go through a subject's diaries, letters and public speeches. Yale University offers a rich collection from which he works. After selecting the pertinent passages, he cleans up the quaint spelling and, when necessary, abridges the redundancies. These are then set out in chronological order tied together by his interpretive commentary into a biography in which the subject speaks at length in an authentic voice. Mr. Donovan has done this before with Benjamin Franklin's (1962) and Thomas Jefferson's (1963) papers. Although it is a method that takes the purest scholars shudder, there is no denying the fact that it brings original materials within the easy reach and understanding of the more casual students of American history.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dodd, Mead

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1964

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