Biographies for the general reader are better than ever and I don’t think it’s just my imagination. My personal, untested, lay theory is that for all the great biographical subjects the big facts are out and we are in the era of interpretation. Writers are giving a new look to the record and integrating it with contemporary knowledge of psychology and sociology. One new genre reflecting this change is the study of family dynamics.
By way of example, here is an odd couple - of bios –
The Last of the Lincolns
The Rise and Fall of a Great American Family
by Charles Lachman
My Thoughts be Bloody
The Bitter Rivalry between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth
that Led to an American Tragedy
by Nora Titone
“The Last of the Lincolns” has the characteristics of what I come to think of as the “new biography”. That is, it’s authoritative, well footnoted, highly readable, and focused on relationships. Historical events are in the background.
Lachman begins by exploring the Abraham Lincoln nuclear family. He documents a change in family dynamics with the death of Edward at 4 years old in 1850. This loss may have created the laissez faire discipline the Lincolns were known for. He shows how Lincoln’s oldest child, Robert Todd Lincoln did not much benefit from this and had the least parental attention. He is the only one who survived to take on the responsibility for (and embarrassment because of) his eccentric, headline grabbing, spendthrift mother. He is also the only Lincoln to have children.
As the story unfolds, you see how this family (d)evolved, becoming more and more eccentric in subsequent generations, until it vanished…. perhaps… Only DNA testing will tell us if there are any descendents among us today.
What is striking about the last confirmed generation of Lincolns is their lack of engagement with the world. They hardly acknowledged their famous great grandfather. They didn’t even vote in the country their forbearer lost his life preserving. It may be due to their wealth which came from Robert Todd Lincoln’s various positions (including President and Chairman of the Board) with the Pullman Company. One wonders what his father would have thought not only of his treatment of his mother but also his dealings with the fledgling labor movement.
Titone builds a case that family dynamics were a main factor in the John Wilkes Booth assassination of President Lincoln. She researches this family through its roots in England where his father, Junius Booth, a successful Shakespearian actor, left his wife and son in to seek a new life in America with the woman he loved. Due to the illegitimacy of the children of this new relationship and a stage reputation to maintain, the growing family had to be hidden. Edwin, the second oldest, accompanied Junius, his alcoholic father, from theater to theater around the US, thereby earning the jealousy of his younger brother, John Wilkes, who had to stay with his mother and siblings in a farmstead far from the public eye.
Titone documents how resentment grew in the young John Wilkes. As Edwin, who learned stage craft from their famous father, became a huge success in New York and Boston, John Wilkes struggled to fill theaters throughout the south. John Wilkes’ attempts at business (more like get rich quick schemes) were also failures. The Booth family bought slaves, freed them, then paid them for their work. This also did not sit well with the young John Wilkes who needed someone to look down on. Titone shows how personal and family issues created a rage that took a political turn.
I highly recommend both these page turning books. Aside from a few incomplete books of the descendents of Cornelius Vanderbilt, “The Last of the Lincolns" is the only forward genealogy I’ve seen. Often books will have sketchy descendent information in their final chapters, but give little to tie the future to the past. I’d be very interested in more “where are they now” and “how did they get there” style works.
The Booth book exploring motivation is not singular in its approach. I use it because it is a recent and outstanding example of this type of work. Its page turning quality makes it one I highly recommend.
The family biography is not the only new approach to biography. Also common is what I consider “niche history”. For instance, there are a number of new works on various aspects of Queen Elizabeth I – her role in piracy, her relationships with women, her “favorites”, her succession, etc. Other approach is to explore at length one segment of a person’s life and another is to study the subject's life in parallel with another.
Biography – better than ever – dominates my reading time... and the art and craft of biography seems to get better every year.