A John Brown Reader: The Story of John Brown in His Own Words, in the Words of Those Who Knew Him, and in the Poetry and Prose of the Literary Heritage (review)

332civil war history Joseph E. Johnston. Oh, the endless meanderings of this so-called biography! Where is the trimming away of irrelevances that one is led to expect of the literary artist Mr. Strode is reputed to be? This book is not the classic defense Jefferson Davis deserves. All that Mr. Strode effectively proves is that his hero was a saintly man who said his prayers, had gentlemanly manners, and was kind to those he was expected to succor and to those he had the duty of killing in battle. The author seems to think that the one way to vindicate Davis is to have him shed sentimental tears over the ill treatment the enemy gave certain other enemies. Another device of the author is to pour sugar over those Davis loved, such as Albert Sidney Johnston, Judah P. Benjamin, and Mary B. Chesnut, and to be positively vicious to those Davis did not like, such as Joseph E. Johnston, P. G. T. Beauregard, and Henry S. Foote. The author misses entirely the lonesome pinnacle that this Macbeth of the Confederacy carved out for himself. Davis may have been unethical in setting himself against the wave of nationalism that enveloped progressive countries in the nineteenth century. He may have been so deluded that he fell like Shakespeare's heroic villain. But Davis' fall was as grand as that of Macbeth. Indeed, he was the grandest failure in American history. He deserves to be recorded as such. Francis B. Simktns Longwood College A John Brown Reader: The Story of John Brown in His Own Words, in the Words of Those Who Knew Him, and in the Poetry and Prose of the Literary Heritage. Edited with Introduction and Commentary by Louis Ruchames. (London, New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1959. Pp. 431. $7.50.) those strange events at Harpers Ferry of a century ago still puzzle students of the Civil War. What sort of man led a hopeless foray into a cul-de-sac, seeking the contents of a United States arsenal with which to arm an unprepared slave population? Was it the recklessness of insanity that caused Old John Brown to imagine that he could challenge an institution supported by millions? Or, was Old John Brown of the stuff of martyrs? Did he seek to gain national attention by the seizure of national property in the government arsenal at Harpers Ferry? Did he seek by his death to awaken the conscience of mankind to the existence of a hideous evil? These questions are not easy to answer, and the present anthology does not attempt to present solutions. Instead, it present a series of Brown letters, other writings, interviews, and his "Provisional Constitution," accounts of Brown by those who knew him, and a substantial selection of poems, speeches, sermons, and writings about Brown. All except one or two selections are highly favorable to John Brown, and the weakness of Book Reviews333 the volume for the historian is that the contemporary and later evaluations that were unfavorable to Brown are neglected. With this limitation in mind, one finds here some understanding of the Old Testament figure of John Brown and of the terrific impact that his sacrifice made upon the poets, writers, and other intellectuals of the North and the Western world. Through the early letters, the fierce eloquence of his speech to the Court in November, 1859, and the sad epitaph which he handed to a guard on the morning of his execution there runs a thread of idealism which helps to explain John Brown and aids in understanding the tremendous appeal that this martyr has had ever since. Stedman, Howells, L. M. Alcott, Wendell Phillips, Melville, Whittier, Emerson, Thoreau, Holmes, Sandburg, and Benet—these are some of the literary figures represented in the literary selections. His soul did indeed go marching on. Brown himself had great contempt for mere "words." His was the propaganda of the deed, even to the ultimate sacrifice. The eloquence of this sacrifice, aldn to the martyrs of old, inspired a generation that marched to war—a war that Brown had seen with foreboding on the morning that he approached the scaffold. "I, John Brown," he had written, "am...