The shamelessness of powerful, predatory men has reminded me of Debby Applegate’s superb biography of the Civil War-era preacher Henry Ward Beecher, “The Most Famous Man in America.”

Beecher, a New England Congregationalist, was progressive,an immensely powerful preacher, a committed abolitionist, and he came from a stellar family (sister Harriet wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and my AP Euro students may remember sister Catharine as the inventor of the modern kitchen and a formative influence on the Victorian “Cult of Domesticity”)

The family’s patriarch, Lyman, was an unbending man who knew with certainty that Catholics, Unitarians and Methodists were going to hell, postage-paid. Lyman also forbade Catharine’s marriage to a young minister because the elder Beecher was unconvinced of the depth and authenticity of the young man’s conversion. The young preacher then sailed for England, in part to rededicate his commitment to Christ, and drowned in a shipwreck. Catharine never married.

H.W. strayed from his father’s path and instead preached a message that emphasized God’s mercy and love. The younger Beecher was never able to keep his trousers in order, however, was accused of multiple affairs, and was charged with adultery in one of the most sensational trials of its day.

Applegate’s biography won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize. She is an enormously talented writer and a steady, dogged and meticulous historian. It’s one of those books that’s more than a “mere” biography. It’s also a fascinating education on mid-Victorian American religion, politics and sexuality.

 

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