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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Man and Monument, both Colossal, December 5, 2002
Gutzon Borglum's name is hardly a household word, but every American knows his greatest work. He was the sculptor that put the faces on Mount Rushmore National Memorial. The enormous heads in the South Dakota rock look calmly out to the great beyond, almost as if they were natural formations. Their conception and completion were far from calm, however, and in _Great White Fathers: The Story of the Obsessive Quest to Create Mount Rushmore_ (PublicAffairs), John Taliaferro has told the tumultuous story of Borglum's life and life work, as well as the turbulent history of the mountain itself. Borglum was a bigger than life figure who insisted on puffing himself up any way he could. He insisted that he was the American Phidias, and like many such supremely confident people, he was torn by the idea that others were plotting against him. He returned from art training in Europe to find that his nation was enthusiastic about commemorative sculpture, and he began entering competitions for such things as the design for the memorial to Ulysses S. Grant. He did not win that one, and groused that the jury suspected his entry could not have been made by an American, so they disqualified it. He had similar excuses and similar paranoia in many of his failed endeavors. The Daughters of the American Confederacy approached him in 1914 to carve a memorial on the side of Stone Mountain in Georgia. He signed on to do the work, which the Ku Klux Klan supported financially. And Borglum supported the Klan. He did not become an officially robed member of the organization, but he attended its rallies and supported its aims. He was fired from the job, but the boosters who hired him for South Dakota didn't know about any such problems. He worked for it for decades, dying of cancer in 1941, whereupon Congress declared the monument finished. Taliaferro has not just written a biography of Borglum, and a fascinating history of the big project, but also a history of the mountain. He includes the Indian Wars of the 1870s, the shameful violations of treaties made with the Indians, and the labor to match the faces of the great white fathers with an even bigger sculpture of Crazy Horse on a nearby mountain. He covers the demonstrations and protests that have been centered at Rushmore in recent decades. The Lakota tribe frequented the Rushmore mountain for centuries for specific ritual purposes, and it is not surprising that they should feel a loss from when the mountain was in its natural state. Taliaferro even includes a description of a recent biker festival, and of course a few pages about Hitchcock's use of the setting in _North by Northwest_. His book even includes reports of the campaigns to have Ronald Reagan added to the mountain, and Elvis Presley, and the most longstanding and fervent campaign, that for Susan B. Anthony. It is an entertaining historic, geologic, and artistic tour.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Encyclopedic and entertaining, November 29, 2002
The Editorial Review above is correct in saying "Taliaferro discusses every conceivable aspect of the monument." The book serves as a biography of sculptor Gutzon Borglum, giving us chapters about his early life and other sculptures prior to Mt. Rushmore. There are chapters devoted to the local Indians and President Coolidge's very brief visit as well. If it has anything to do with the history of Mt. Rushmore, it's in this book. Lucky for us, Taliaferro is skilful writer/historian. This book is never dull or pedantic; it's always fascinating and entertaining. With books like this, I sometimes find myself skipping forward over the slow parts. "Great White Fathers," like Taliaferro's biography of Edgar Rice Burroughs, "Tarzan Forever", contains no slow parts.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Interesting Book on A Controversial Monument, April 12, 2004
Author John Taliaferro has provided us with an interesting and controversial history of Mount Rushmore. The first part of the book is a general history of the area encompassed by the Great Sioux Reservation of which the Black Hills of South Dakota is included. I found this general history to be a good summary of the conflict between the Native Americans and the American government. During the early 1920's South Dakota historian Doane Robinson wanted a monument of significance in the central part of the country for Americans to visit. Enter Gutzon Borglum who was running into difficulties on his Stone Mountain project in Georgia. The author delves into the strengths and weakness of Borglum as a man and as a sculptor. The project proved to be overly ambitious and ended up being a scaled down version of what was originally intended. The author provides us with numerous tidbits of information as to why the four individuals were chosen to be enshrined and the difficulties in carving their faces. Since Mount Rushmore is on land claimed by the Native Americans, part of the book includes the controversy between what some view as a monument to American democracy while others view it as honoring four individuals who have poor historical dealings with Native Americans. Depending on your point of view Mount Rushmore is either a sight for sore eyes or an eyesore. The book, while controversial, is an interesting read. I did find one mistake. On page 43 the author states the Wounded Knee massacre took place on December 28, 1890. The actual date was December 29, 1890. If you are interested in the history of the Black Hills of South Dakota and Mount Rushmore I would recommend it to you as a book I'm sure you would enjoy.
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