Brady, Cyrus Townsend. True Andrew Jackson. *$2. Lippincott.
The “True biographies” series aims at no formal biography in chronological order. In keeping with this purpose the author says, “here is an attempt to make a picture in words of a man; to exhibit personality; to show that personality in touch with its human environment; to declare what manner of man was he whose name is on the title page. Not to chronicle events, therefore, but to describe a being; not to write a history of the time, but to give an impression of a period associated with its dominant personal force, has been my task.” Thus the work is an intimate personal sketch of the man, based upon years of study.
“Mr. Brady seems to have placed a rather uncritical dependence upon Parton and the two recent biographies of Colyar and Buell, and to have wholly ignored the collection of Jackson papers in the Library of Congress, a collection that is unique for the vivid insight it gives into Jackson’s character.”
+ – Am. Hist. R. 11: 975. Jl. ’06. 140w.
“Mr. Brady’s picture is neither true nor plausible.”
– Critic. 48: 569. Je. ’06. 270w.
“There is too much quotation, and the result is too much like a scrap-book. Mr. Brady has made a closer study of Jackson than most of the recent authorities quoted by him, and his judgment, not theirs, should have been given.”
+ – Dial. 41: 18. Jl. 1, ’06. 520w.
“The historical background is weak, and the forces which shaped the hero’s life are but half understood.”