A study bursting at the seams with admiration for its subjects.
A pull-ye-up-by-the-bootstraps biography of one of the most famous families in 19th-century America that nobody has ever heard of, by a sympathetic descendant.
Kelsey’s ambitious, consistently engaging text portrays the ten Washburn siblings born between 1813 and 1833 in Livermore, Maine. (Actually, the seven accomplished brothers get almost all his attention, though the sisters receive a chapter chronicling marriages and children.) By midcentury, three of the brothers were serving as Congressmen from three different states, all devoted to the Republican Party they helped form, all committed to limiting the expansion of slavery. Due to their isolated, Universalist background as children of Israel and Patty Washburn, who ran the farm and country store 25 miles north of Lewiston, they had big dreams and unflinching determination—to get out. Though separated geographically, they would remain closely knit. Lawyer Israel Jr. worked tirelessly in Congress for Maine statehood and the fate of the Union, and became governor. Wealthy banker Sid helped bankroll many of his brothers’ schemes. Elihu hung out his law shingle in Galena, Ill., served in Congress, became the “watchdog of the Treasury” and later ambassador to France, rewards for his loyalty to presidents Lincoln and Grant. Cadwallader, several times over a Congressman from La Crosse, Wis., then a major general during the Civil War, made a fortune from lumber along the Black River and in Minnesota flour mills, gradually developing the new city of Minneapolis (with the help of enterprising younger brother William Drew), and later serving as Wisconsin governor. William, “prince charming” of the family, merged the Pillsbury-Washburn mills in 1882 and won seats in Congress, then the U.S. Senate in 1890. Sam would be broken by wounds in the war as well as business failures in Minnesota; Charles spent an ill-starred stint as American representative in Paraguay. All exhibited the qualities Kelsey promotes as most winningly American: self-sufficiency, independent thinking and boundless energy.
A study bursting at the seams with admiration for its subjects.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-88448-299-4
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
A unique, incandescent memoir.
A lyrical, soul-stirring memoir about how an acclaimed Native American poet and musician came to embrace “the spirit of poetry.”
For Harjo, life did not begin at birth. She came into the world as an already-living spirit with the goal to release “the voices, songs, and stories” she carried with her from the “ancestor realm.” On Earth, she was the daughter of a half-Cherokee mother and a Creek father who made their home in Tulsa, Okla. Her father's alcoholism and volcanic temper eventually drove Harjo's mother and her children out of the family home. At first, the man who became the author’s stepfather “sang songs and smiled with his eyes,” but he soon revealed himself to be abusive and controlling. Harjo's primary way of escaping “the darkness that plagued the house and our family” was through drawing and music, two interests that allowed her to leave Oklahoma and pursue her high school education at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. Interaction with her classmates enlightened her to the fact that modern Native American culture and history had been shaped by “colonization and dehumanization.” An education and raised consciousness, however, did not spare Harjo from the hardships of teen pregnancy, poverty and a failed first marriage, but hard work and luck gained her admittance to the University of New Mexico, where she met a man whose “poetry opened one of the doors in my heart that had been closed since childhood.” But his hard-drinking ways wrecked their marriage and nearly destroyed Harjo. Faced with the choice of submitting to despair or becoming “crazy brave,” she found the courage to reclaim a lost spirituality as well as the “intricate and metaphorical language of my ancestors.”
A unique, incandescent memoir.Pub Date: July 9, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-393-07346-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
SEEN & HEARD
At-times inspirational memoir about a journalist’s battle with a grave disease she had to face while also dealing with her...
With the assistance of Chambers (co-author; Yes, Chef, 2012, etc.), broadcaster Roberts (From the Heart: Eight Rules to Live By, 2008) chronicles her struggles with myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare condition that affects blood and bone marrow.
The author is a well-known newscaster, formerly on SportsCenter and now one of the anchors of Good Morning America. In 2007, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which she successfully fought with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Five years later, after returning from her news assignment covering the 2012 Academy Awards, she learned that chemotherapy had resulted in her developing MDS, which led to an acute form of leukemia. Without a bone marrow transplant, her projected life expectancy was two years. While Roberts searched for a compatible donor and prepared for the transplant, her aging mother’s health also began to gravely deteriorate. Roberts faced her misfortune with an athlete’s mentality, showing strength against both her disease and the loss of her mother. This is reflected in her narration, which rarely veers toward melodrama or self-pity. Even in the chapters describing the transplantion process and its immediate aftermath, which make for the most intimate parts of the book, Roberts maintains her positivity. However, despite the author’s best efforts to communicate the challenges of her experience and inspire empathy, readers are constantly reminded of her celebrity status and, as a result, are always kept at arm's length. The sections involving Roberts’ family partly counter this problem, since it is in these scenes that she becomes any daughter, any sister, any lover, struggling with a life-threatening disease. “[I]f there’s one thing that spending a year fighting for your life against a rare and insidious…disease will teach you,” she writes, “it’s that time is not to be wasted.”
At-times inspirational memoir about a journalist’s battle with a grave disease she had to face while also dealing with her mother’s passing.Pub Date: April 22, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4555-7845-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
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