{"id":4568,"date":"2006-02-28T08:37:36","date_gmt":"2006-02-28T13:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=4568"},"modified":"2015-05-20T09:00:29","modified_gmt":"2015-05-20T13:00:29","slug":"finally-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=4568","title":{"rendered":"Finally, Hamilton"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have started to read Ron Chernow’s massive biography of Alexander Hamilton<\/a>. Kind of amazing I haven’t read it yet – seeing as I’m rather insane <\/a>– but I had just read Willard Sterne Randall’s Alexander Hamilton: A Life<\/a>\"\"<\/i> when the Chernow one came out, so I decided to hold off.<\/p>\n

Strangely – I picked it up a couple of nights ago, opened it up – and on the front page I had written my name, the date, and, in parentheses: “A gift from Daniel Champion”. Which … suddenly … made me sad. Daniel Champion<\/a>. I never met him, but I miss him. His widow Stephanie has continued on blogging on his blog – which is wonderful – but just seeing his name like that was odd. Thank you, Daniel Champion, for this beautiful big book. He gave it to me in hardcover as well. I, being not a rich person, normally wait for the paperbacks. Save a couple bucks. But here it is. This ginormous BEAUTIFULLY made book … Anyway. Sad. Very sad.<\/p>\n

Talk about sad.<\/p>\n

The first chapter – about Hamilton’s upbringing – is one of the most harrowing things I’ve ever read. I know about his upbringing. I am familiar with the particulars of what he was born into, and what happened to him.<\/p>\n

But Chernow makes you feel like you are THERE. Great writing. It’s the kind of thing where, at one point, I had to put the book down – just to sit and contemplate for a second … contemplate the pictures Chernow had put in my mind. The picturesque surroundings … and the sick and brutal society of those islands … So so well written.<\/p>\n

Willard Sterne Randall’s book is also good – I very much like his writing – but for whatever reason – the truth of Hamilton’s situation – what it must have been LIKE for him … does not come wafting off the pages the way it does in Chernow’s book. It becomes 100 times more amazing to realize how he became what he did … how brilliant he was … when you realize the horror he was born into. Truly astonishing. I’ll never get over being amazed by Alexander Hamilton.<\/p>\n

So Danny Champion – my very-much-missed blog friend – thank you. Thank you.<\/p>\n

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