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The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher

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I would not have chosen to read a book about Henry Ward Beecher, but I received The Most Popular Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate as a gift. I was pleasantly surprised by this engrossing and well-written story.

I knew just a little about Beecher, most of it coming from Ron Power's book, Mark Twain. I wasn't aware that Beecher's father was the famous Congregationalist preacher, Lyman Beecher. Henry was born and raised in an austere, Calvinist household. They did not celebrate Christmas, holidays or birthdays. Yet, Henry did not grow up in a joyless or loveless home. Lyman adored his twelve children and spent lots of time with them, insisting that "they were endowed with great gifts of intelligence, compassion and self-discipline." Education was a priority (even for the girls) and spirited discussion was expected and encouraged.

Henry did not set out to enter the ministry, but after graduating from Amherst, he found himself enrolled in his father's seminary. Once he entered the ministry, he wasn't always the best parson, but he was a brilliant preacher. This was a time period when entertaining speakers were comparable to the rock stars of today. He eventually found a home at Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights. While there, he became embroiled in the abolitionist movement. In fact, Beecher is credited with bringing anti-slavery to the mainstream.

Beecher was largely responsible for changing the core beliefs about Christianity in the 19th Century. He switched the focus from a vengeful and wrathful God to a loving and forgiving one. He was not without his critics, and some accused him of turning people into Beecherites rather than Christians. All great men have their weaknesses, and Beecher's was his ego. He liked to live very lavishly (after a very frugal start) and was constantly overextended. His wife, Eunice, was a difficult woman and Beecher's treatment of her wasn't always exemplary. But the biggest scandal to befall Beecher involved his many alleged extramarital affairs. His best friend, Theodore Tilton, eventually sued him over an alleged affair between Beecher and Tilton's wife, Elizabeth. These infidelities would blacken his name, split his parish and torture his soul.

Applegate does a magnificent job of bringing Beecher to life. The only shortcoming I can see in The Most Famous Man is that there is virtually nothing about Beecher's children. If not for this, I would have given this book a resounding 5 star vote.

"The Most Famous Man in America: the biography of Henry Ward Beecher"
by DEBBY APPLEGATE
*******GENERAL*******

Without question, DEBBY APPLEGATE has tremendous depth as a biographer, but Applegate also has potential as an eminent historian. When I read her chapters, I was surprised at the depth of historical knowledge presented. The research is illuminative of all phases of the life of Henry Ward Beecher. Applegate connects Beecher to the people surrounding him, and to the American nation as a whole; but this book's real penetration is its coverage of American society leading up to the Civil War. In fact, her treatment of each member of the Beecher Family is rich, impressing upon us the importance of the Beecher family in the greater context of the fabric of the American nation. There are no indications in the cover or Introduction that inform us that Applegate has has this depth as an historian, in addition to being a good biographer.

The characterization of the proverbial "Connecticut Yankee" takes on flesh in this thorough biography, because Applegate can write concerning the fullness of the human personality which transcends the superficial aspects of human character. Not every biographer can accomplish this, but we often wouldn't know it. One is seldom aware if a biographer fails to show you something. There is nothing pedestrian about Applegate's writing. This is a writer with a gift for making a human being almost transparent.

*****SPECIFICS********

Applegate's biography comes at a time when popular authors mislead and confuse people with misinformation and extensive historical ommissions as to the character and nature of American religious figures of significance and the times in which they made significant contribution to the life of the American nation.

Applgegate has the ability to show poignant contrasts in the Beecher family, but more importantly, Applegate elaborates the background of turmoil as the controversy of slaveholding begins to embroil the young nation, For example, the author makes clear the social situation at Amherst college and other American colleges, where idealistic young men and women who were pushed toward religious revival by the faculty, surprised society by including the liberation of black slaves as part of a step away from sin and toward salvation. This was an unpredictable outcome of ever-present evangelism efforts in American communities. Applegate accurately identifies this fervor as comparable to the campus activism of the 1960's.

Furthermore, Applegate is not describing events as though they were occurrances separate from the actions of individuals, which is how textbooks often show events, as though they were disembodied from actual persons. Rather, Applegate is showing that historical and social trends are distinctly the product of specific individuals, and also that these events are the outcome of the conflict of specific ideas that are embodied in the people. An example of this is the religious strife in the Boston area brought about by the differences between the Protestants (notably Lyman Beecher) and the Catholics.

The other hotbed was in Cincinnati, OHIO where Lyman Beecher ran LANE SEMINARY, an institution whose Abolitionist activism reached boiling point, prompting mob violence and threatening the rule of law.

Applegate, in my opinion, deserves a high stature as an American biographer, and her subject is essential to a clear understanding of American history. She begins with the father, Lyman Beecher, and demonstrates the imprint he made upon his children. Sometimes that imprint was a torment, even if well intentioned. What is fascinating about Applegate's handling of Lyman Beecher is her writing never strays from a balanced and impartial neutrality. She never presents anyone as though she were, in some petty and judgemental fashion, holding the person up for us to ridicule. Applegate takes the person at face value. Perhaps Applegate comes from a family where it is commonly accepted that every person has an innate worth. I did not come from that kind of a background, but if Applegate can introduce every personality she studies, in this manner, I'm eager to read all she writes.

--Bruce R. Bain


/

I am an author, a Christian, and a Calvinist. I love good history. However, after the deep prejudice against, and misunderstanding of Calvinism portrayed in the first two chapters, I almost put the book down.

Despite these reservations, I am glad I persevered. Applegate writes in an engaging, entertaining style. I finished with fresh incite into the political machinations of early 19th century America, especialy New York, New England, and the history of the early abolitionist movement.

I also concluded down deeply disturbed and distressed by the subject of the book, Henry Ward Beecher. Applegate repeatedly stresses two attributes of Beecher's moral character. The first was his lust for fame and popularity. The second is his continual compromise of conscience to obtain that popularity. These compromises ruined his life and the lives of many associated with him. She closes by comparing him to Dr. Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, and Bill Clinton, all good comparisons, and in my opinion, all deeply distressing hypocrites like Beecher.

I finished the book with mixed feelings of revulsion and empathy for Beecher. He was a first class hypocrite. He continually preached love, but abused and used his wife, his congregation, his business associates and the women with whom he comitted adultery. He pretended to be one thing, but in reality was the exact opposite. Was he weak? Yes, like all of us he was weak. But was he sincere? It doesn't appear that he was. A sincere man seeks help. He wants to change. He humbles himself and exposes his weakness. Beecher did none of these Instead, continually and habitually covered up the damning evidence that pointed to his sins. That is not the definition of a good person.

Did he do some good? Yes. He was a key figure in the abolitionist movement. But, in other respects he was much like the men exposed in Paul Johnson's insightful book, "Intellectuals." He was a man who loved the world in general, but was incapable of loving those closest to himself.

Despite these facts, the author was unwilling to call Beecher what he really was, "a wolf in sheeps clothing." She concludes, "His painful awareness of his own weakness and his ongoing battle to overcome them were the wellspring of his great and lasting contribution to American life: the all forgiving Gospel of Love. As Beecher would have said, without sin there can be no saving grace."

It appears that Applegate, like Beecher, is in love with love, but not real virtue. True loves serves, expends itself, humbles itself, and dies that other might live. But Applegate's conclusion spins evil, refusing to come to grips with it or condemn it. Yes God is love, but He is also justice. The two cannot be separated.

This is not the definition of a good man. I expected Applegate to draw this clear conclusion. I was disappointed.

In short, Applegate writes well. I am thankful for her research, and the volumes of excellent information on Beecher and his times. I am deeply disturbed by her conclusions. They express the same loss of moral compass as the man she writes about, Henry Ward Beecher

This book opens up the life of this enormously famous evangelist and restores him to his proper place in American history.

One of the most interesting sections of the book to me was the discussion of how Beecher's philosophy led him to advocate mercy for the South after the war. As Applegate writes, "Henry genuinely believed that sin was itself a form of suffering, making further punishment cruel and unusual." Henry also believed that the amount of military brute force that would be required to make the South implement social equality for blacks would be so extreme that it would corrupt the United States. He warned against authoritarianism and the evils of concentrating more power in Washington. Interesting and still timely subject for debate!

I do have one dismaying caveat about this book. When you read history, you have to feel that you're in good hands and that the author is steering you right. After all, you probably don't know much about the subject; that's why you're reading the book. That's why I was astonished, in the one area of the book I did know something about, to find a pretty egregious historical error.

It was in the section that discussed the annexation of Texas. Applegate breezes through this section describing how the United States made a blatant land grab of part of Mexico -- thus erasing the entire period of American colonization of Texas, the Texas Revolution, and the 9-year existence of the Republic of Texas, an internationally recognized independent nation. I have to admit that I felt uneasy for the rest of the book. Applegate's knowledge of Beecher is impeccable, but I have to wonder about her grasp of the larger times in which he lived.

In the first part of the book the reader gets not only a biography but a description of life in post-Revolutionary America up to the Civil War. Through the life of Henry Beecher we get a look at how Calvinism of the period infused a pious household and how the Great Awakenening played out in that clerical family.

The author's presentation of the country's social and intellectual changes through the life of Henry Beecher is a fascinating read. We see how the times forced the severe Lyman's move to Boston. The anti-Catholicism he preaches comes back to haunt him when his church burns and liquor bottles burst in its basement. The incident graphically illustrates that a clerical collar no longer brings deference and why.

Applegate provides exceptional and very readable documentation of how Henry was schooled in his father's narrow mindedness and taught the opposite of self esteem. The author says Beecher had great parental love, but as one of 12 children, but how many minutes in a week could have been bestowed on this young and seemingly unexceptional child, particularly upon the arrival of a morose stepmother producing her own offspring? (Among Henry's siblings there are 2 suicides.) Childhoods such as Henry's provide the empathy common to many who advocate for those in trouble as well as produce untidy lives. Henry, longing to please his stern father, developed people skills, perhaps by observing his sermons, his opinion morphing and his control of others. You can extrapolate that Henry's talent for getting people to love/follow/support (politically and financially) him was an adaptation necessary to his psyche. The author credits it as essential to the anti-slavery movement.

We follow Henry's pathetic 7 year courtship of the even more emotionally deprived Eunice to a hardscrapple life in Indiana where the author documents the consequences of any anti-slavery whiff. Henry is discovered for promotions to Indianapolis, pop. 3,000 and then to NYC where SoHo is still a suburb. We see how pro-slavery fanaticism of the South and appeasement of the northern politicians outraged the general public in the North. It made anti-slavery moregenerally more acceptable in the North and in particular Henry's circles. Henry knew how to articulate it, and how far his audience was able to go with him on it. We see Henry as a man of this times and a product of them too.

There's a different tone when it gets to the consequences of Beecher's untidy life. This part is like a different book. It's mostly a report on the moves of the accusers and defenders and descriptions of hearings and trials. There is little analysis or historical context. Yes, we see Mark Twain, the woman's suffrage movement and hear of Grant's scandals, but they are the backdrop and not wound into the story.

The book is a great work of scholarship throughout. The pre Civil War and War parts deserve 6 or 7 stars, for weaving Henry's saga into the times. The 100 or so pages at the end, which show thorough research, do not have the analysis equal to the previous standard. I would have liked to see the allegations and trial parts significantly cut and the resulting space devoted to the social and political context of the times. For this reason, I gave 4 stars and not 5.

I agree with other reviewers that this is an outstanding biography. Debby Applegate brings an obscure character, and the people and events around him, into clear focus. Her writing is strong -- clear and confident, and occasionally rather striking. Her research and her grasp of the period are astonishing. She certainly seems to have it in her to write a great biography -- but this isn't quite it.
The problem is that it appears to be three books stitched together, quite different in style and method, though of course hanging together in terms of subject and authorship.
The first book carries Beecher into the beginnings of his career, roughly into his starting years in Brooklyn. This portion of the biography is the best in terms of biographical art. Ms. Applegate brings Beecher to life in the context of his family, his surroundings, and other elements of those times. We see him as, one can imagine, he might have seen himself. The focus stays on Beecher, and we have a rich sense of his inner life. This is brilliant biography.
The second "book" in this volume deals mainly with Beecher in his relationship with the slavery issue, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. This portion of the book, though very good in terms of historical content, is not as good biography, because our view has panned back. Though Beecher is still the focal point, our view of him is more distant. We now see him less and less from the inside, and see him more as an actor on the stage. We still catch glimpses of his inner life, and we still sympathize with him and root for him, but our sense of intimacy with him has slipped considerably.
The final "book" is a potboiler about Beecher's sex life and the trouble it got him into. This is a great story, well worth telling (and reading!), but in this part Beecher is further demoted to being one of multiple characters we are following in the story. If this had been a biography of, say, Theodore Tilton, it is not clear that this part of the text would have had to be changed at all. We are now no more inside of Beecher's mind and heart than we are inside the rest of the large cast in the story. In addition, in the context of the biography, it goes on way too long. Given the new material she found, this was probably a temptation too juicy to resist, but as much fun as it is to read this story, it throws the whole biography out of balance, as if this one episode was, roughly, 20% of what his life was about (it wasn't). It would have been better to write these details in some historical monograph, or perhaps another book. Yet, I write this as a lover and critic of biography. This is probably the part of the book that is going to make it a big seller, and (as Beecher himself knew) this is an important part of authorship. So I criticize the art, but appreciate the decision.
Notwithstanding all this, it remains an Excellent book, and a surprisingly good read. But only the first half is great biography.

Debby Applegate's biography of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, "The Most Famous Man in America", has received nearly unanimous acclaim and an abundance of praise from reviewers. Much of it is well deserved. The book captivates, and the readers succumb to its thrall not because of the sheer writing ability of the author, but because of the charming, compassionate, extraordinary and powerful personality of the preacher.

We could perhaps rightfully consider Henry Beecher (1813 - 1887) one of the earliest proponents of liberalism, if not the father of the modern Liberal Philosophy. He was an abolitionist who preached the gospel of love and the novel but much reviled concept of equality among men; and among men he regarded as friends were four staunch abolitionists- Lincoln, Emerson, Grant, and Mark Twain. His sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote the memorable "Uncle Tom's Cabin", was an abolitionist also. He preached that God was compassionate and loving, who readily forgave all our sins, and that life is meant to be a pleasurable, joyful experience. And he truly believed that seeking earthly pleasures was no bar to heaven, and that experiencing sensual pleasures was most certainly not sinful. Famous for his oratory and flashy clothes, he loved jewelry so much that he always carried a few unset gems with him. And like Imelda Marcos, he loved to shop. People from Manhattan flocked to his Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights to listen to his mesmerizing sermons.

He had an eye for female beauties, a weakness for feminine charms, and a need for female companionship so great that he sought solace in the embrace of his female congregants, even though the congregants were married. The author has written about three such affairs, and as a result of one affair with a woman named Chloe, he might even have produced a daughter named Violet who bore a strong resemblance to him. The author implies that his wife, Eunice, nagged him at home, and as a result he sought solace away from his wife and home, in the company of married women. In 1874, at the age of 61, he was indicted and tried for having a "criminal conversation" (adulterous affair) with one of his congregants, Mrs. Elizabeth Tilton, wife of his best friend, Theodore Tilton. The jury was not persuaded, and so he was acquitted.

After the trial, in his twilight years, Henry lost his prestige and much of his luster. Although he continued to preach and write articles for newspapers, he never regained his stature, and in 1887 he died of a broken heart at age 73.

The author states that Henry Beecher's marriage was loveless. That raises an interesting question: If he could indeed produce twelve children in a loveless marriage, how many more would he have produced, had he truly loved his wife?

Finally, I wish to say a few words about the author's prose. I am aware that I might sound like the lone voice in a choir that sings slightly off-pitch; but I must be truthful to myself and, like the Dixie Chicks I must say what I mean, and mean what I say. This book is written in a prose so relentlessly bland that it has the eerie aura of an ancient Tibetan painting rendered in sepia tones only. The book, nevertheless, is fascinating because of the colorful and likable personality of Henry Beecher. Here is a paragraph I picked at random to illustrate my point: "The older "respectable" men of the town still strolled the streets in outdated colonial garb, clad in short breeches buckled at the knee, tricornered hats, cutaway coats, and the occasional powdered wig. Only Democrats and infidels, it was said, wore pantaloons, or trousers as they came to be called. With deliberate symbolism the Congregational meetinghouse stood in the dead center of the common at the very summit of a hill, and from its old- fashioned swallow's-nest pulpit the Reverend Beecher ruled over the manners and morals of the town."

But, on the whole, the book is engaging, and the subject fascinating, and it is well worth reading.

Although a book of just over 500 pages, it was a "page turner," which moved quickly. It provided not only a great deal of personal information about Beecher and his family, but also about the times in which he lived. One weakness was that the analysis of his theology and his role in the development of liberal Protestantism could have been more thoroughly developed.

Henry Ward Beecher was born to Lyman Beecher and the first of his three wives in Connecticut in 1813. The Beechers had a large family of 12 children. Henry as a middle child was not ticketed for stardom as were several of his older siblings. His sister
Harriet Beecher would write Uncle Tom's Cabin and become rich
and famous.
Henry was a mediocre student graduating from Amherst. He reluctanly entered the ministry after giving up his boyhood dream to be a sailor. The most influential person is his life was his famed father the sober Calvinist preacher Lyman Beecher.
Henry wed a difficult woman and his marriage was never smooth.
The couple lost several children (including twins) to the childhood diseases so rampant in the nineteenth century. Henry
served as pastor in Lawrenceburg Indiana; Cincinnati Ohio and
most notably in Brooklyn. In Brooklyn at the Plymouth Congregational Church Henry became the best known preacher in
America. He sent rifles to abolitionists in the South (called
Beecher Bibles); auctioned off slaves from the chancel of the church to win their freedom; was involved in the Womens Rights
movement and was beloved by his worshipful flock.
Henry engaged in several extramarital affairs. He may have
fathered an illegitimate daughter. Henry was vain, egotistical,
luxury loving and a spendthrift often in debt. He loved to collect books, paintings and bric a brac. Beecher grew rich on
his books, newspaper editorship and extensive lecture tours.
He knew such famous people as Mark Twain and courted celebrity.
Henry's most notorious affair came with the wife of Theodore
Tilton a prominent member of the Plymouth Church. Though exonerated the long drawn out libel trail filed by Tilton against Beecher; the adverse publicity and the turmoil of the affair aged and weakened Beecher.
Appleby's book is basically in three parts: 1. The early
childhood and adolescence of Beecher as he grew to manhood
in the brilliantly eccentric Beecher family. 2. The involvement of Henry in the antislavery movement. 3. The affair with Mrs.
Tilton.
There are mistakes! Davy Crockett was not from Ky! He hailed from Tennessee. Applegate probably confused him with Daniel
Boone! Some of the writing is sloppy and needs editing. Much of
the material dealing with the Civil War could be found in any
good history book and adds nothing to a life of Beecher.
Overall she has done a good job. The book was fascinating to me since I am a Presbyterian minister.
Beecher? My verdict on him is mixed. He emphasized the love of Jesus Christ in the gospel though he renounced hell. Beecher
was valuable in teaching people about the God of love rather than wrath as he renounced the stern Calvinism of his youth.
His personal life was a mess. Anyone studying American religon and society in the Victorian era should add this worthy tome to
their shelves.

I kept hearing about this book and reading about it. I saw it on the front cover of the New York Times Sunday Book Review. Everything I was reading and hearing seemed too good to be true. Usually I don't pay attention to reviews. But I finally bought the book, started reading it and simply couldn't put it down. It is perfect: the book teaches so much about 19th Century America but at the same time is a fascinating portrait of a great American hero who just about everybody has forgotten. What a gift to history and to readers to have this great book reintroducing this great American. Wowwwww!!!! I see why it took the author (they say) 20 years to write it. And I now see why reviewers are raving about it and some are predicting it might win the Pulitzer Prize!!!