An impressive feat of historical research that illuminates the life of an unjustly neglected historical figure.
A brief but thorough biography of Enoch Train, the American entrepreneur who financially backed famed shipbuilder Donald McKay.
Donald McKay was a renowned shipbuilder in the 1850s—his clippers set sailing records that at the time seemed unbeatable. Yet as we learn from Miles’ biography, McKay’s career was nearly unthinkable without the enthusiastic support of Train, an energetic leader in maritime commerce who would eventually become the famed shipbuilder’s chief customer. When the two men met in 1844, Train was looking to expand his fleet of ships and was immediately taken with McKay. Within an hour, Train had ordered a 620-ton packet ship, the Joshua Bates, the first of many such commissions. In fact, Train was so pleased with McKay’s work that he helped him finance his own shipyard in Boston. Miles effectively captures not only the symbiotic relationship between Train and McKay, but also the shifting landscape of the shipping industry in the mid-19th century, an industry being transformed by the rising dominance of steam-propulsion technology. Train emerges as a complex figure—he was an indefatigable and adventurous entrepreneur who transcended inauspicious beginnings; after the death of his mother, Hannah, he was left parentless at only 12 years old. Miles achieves an extraordinary comprehensiveness given the brevity of the book, covering Train’s personal tragedies, political career, and final financial collapse. In fact, Miles’ impressive rigor can be a liability—it’s easy to become dazed by the flood of granular information that engorges the book, especially regarding financial details. The author’s biography remains a thoughtful, sensitive historical portrait. But this is certainly not hagiography either. While the author generally presents Train in favorable terms, he is also taken to task for participating in the slave trade: “For some reason, the compassion he showed in multiple other contexts was lacking in his views about slavery.” Miles is surely correct to point out this moral transgression—one that seems incongruent with Train’s character in general.
An impressive feat of historical research that illuminates the life of an unjustly neglected historical figure.Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2022
ISBN: 9798987314302
Page Count: 223
Publisher: Dorchester Historical Society
Review Posted Online: Jan. 23, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.
According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063226562
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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