What do you think?
Rate this book
Francis Bacon: The Temper of a Man
The portrait Bowen paints of this controversial man, Francis Bacon (1561-1626), balances the outward life and actions of Bacon with the seemingly contradictory aspects of his refined philosophical reflections. As Lord Chancellor of England, Bacon was impeached by Parliament for taking bribes in office, convicted, and banished from London and the law courts. In a prayer Bacon composed during the interval following his punishment, he reveals that the dichotomy of his existence was no more deeply felt than by himself, and he readily admits that his obligations to society were not as suited to his nature as the study of philosophy, science, and law.
Modern scholars hold Bacon's philosophical works, Novum Organum, Advancement of Learning, and The New Atlantis, as his greatest achievements. Bowen's story reveals a man whose genius it was not to immerse himself in the rigor of scientific experimentation, but to realize what questions science should ask, and thereby reach beyond the status quo and appeal to the wider imagination of his generation. In his writings, Bacon challenged established social and religious orders, raised questions about the mind/body relation and the role of dreams, and foresaw the development of the modern research university. It is Bacon's legacy to have gone beyond his age and, out of pure intuition, anticipate the concerns of future generations.
Modern scholars hold Bacon's philosophical works, Novum Organum, Advancement of Learning, and The New Atlantis, as his greatest achievements. Bowen's story reveals a man whose genius it was not to immerse himself in the rigor of scientific experimentation, but to realize what questions science should ask, and thereby reach beyond the status quo and appeal to the wider imagination of his generation. In his writings, Bacon challenged established social and religious orders, raised questions about the mind/body relation and the role of dreams, and foresaw the development of the modern research university. It is Bacon's legacy to have gone beyond his age and, out of pure intuition, anticipate the concerns of future generations.
284 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1963
2 people are currently reading
105 people want to read
About the author
Catherine Drinker Bowen
76 books19 followersCatherine Drinker Bowen was born as Catherine Drinker on the Haverford College campus on January 1, 1897, to a prominent Quaker family. She was an accomplished violinist who studied for a musical career at the Peabody Institute and the Juilliard School of Music, but ultimately decided to become a writer. She had no formal writing education and no academic career, but became a bestselling American biographer and writer despite criticism from academics. Her earliest biographies were about musicians. Bowen did all her own research, without hiring research assistants, and sometimes took the controversial step of interviewing subjects without taking notes.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 9, 2014
Catherine Drinker Bowen is such a wonderful writer that she can make you fall in love with her subject just through the beauty of the book. That was the case with her biography of Sir Edward Coke, The Lion and the Throne. (Of course, her subject was worthy of admiration in his own right.) So when I saw that she had also written about Francis Bacon, Coke’s rival, I had to read the book. In this book, Bowen tells the story of Francis Bacon, the brilliant polymath from Elizabethan and Jacobian days. He was a legal scholar, scientific philosopher, writer, and politician who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor. Bowen’s gifts as a biographer are astonishing – her books are better than the best novels in their detail and storytelling. She has a way of using exacting details to bring the person’s life into the reader’s head. While there is plenty to dislike about Bacon, there is also a lot to love. And with Bowen’s writing, you will most likely end the book with an intellectual crush – either on Bacon or Bowen or both.
April 10, 2021
"I will now attempt to make a general and faithful perambulation of learning.... [M]y purpose is, at this time, to note only omissions and deficiencies...."
Few individuals indeed could have written such words with any credibility, and Francis Bacon was probably the last of that paltry breed. Yet far from being a stuffy scholar, he charged through the spheres of elite law practice, bestselling fiction writing, and highest public service, all the while living beyond his means and inveterately scheming. Such an extraordinary life fairly recommends itself to study, and Catherine Drinker Bowen is generally an engaging biographer, but ultimately I think the 250-page length was a mistake, providing too little detail to be very satisfying.
Few individuals indeed could have written such words with any credibility, and Francis Bacon was probably the last of that paltry breed. Yet far from being a stuffy scholar, he charged through the spheres of elite law practice, bestselling fiction writing, and highest public service, all the while living beyond his means and inveterately scheming. Such an extraordinary life fairly recommends itself to study, and Catherine Drinker Bowen is generally an engaging biographer, but ultimately I think the 250-page length was a mistake, providing too little detail to be very satisfying.
June 23, 2025
In an Author’s Note appended to the book, Bowen tells us that “the aim of this book is introduction, evocation;…” She has provided just that – a comprehensive summary of the key phases and events of Bacon’s life, characterizations of his relationships with important figures, particularly his sponsors upon whom he depended and the royals he served (Queen Elizabeth and James I). We see his ambition, his desperation to achieve rank and maintain position. We watch him climb upward and see his moments of misstep and misfortune along the way, and ultimately, his final fall from power shortly before his death.
Through it all, we are told of Bacon’s intellect, his eloquence and powers of persuasion. We see, too, a man who says from early in his life that he is more passionate about and better suited to a life of books and scholarship, yet is drawn continually into the civic arena and political struggles. Bacon was phenomenally successful in each arena, viewed from our distant future vantage point – Attorney General and Keeper of the Seal of England under James I, and although relatively limited in his recognition in contemporary British intellectual circles, writer of works that still carry influence today – father of science, advocate of empiricism and induction as a scientific method and of skepticism in knowledge as a foundation principle.
As a reader, I’ve appreciated Bowen’s “full-life” presentation, but her prose felt emotionally flat (which surprised me, given one prior experience with a Bowen work on the writing of the US Constitution). I found her treatment of Bacon’s scholarly works to be cursory, if admiring. I’ve returned to Loren Eiseley’s essays (The Man Who Saw Through Time) for a more satisfying review of our intellectual debts to Bacon, and I look forward to dipping into some of Bacon’s works directly. Read this book to gain an overview of Bacon’s life and times, but don’t stop there.
Through it all, we are told of Bacon’s intellect, his eloquence and powers of persuasion. We see, too, a man who says from early in his life that he is more passionate about and better suited to a life of books and scholarship, yet is drawn continually into the civic arena and political struggles. Bacon was phenomenally successful in each arena, viewed from our distant future vantage point – Attorney General and Keeper of the Seal of England under James I, and although relatively limited in his recognition in contemporary British intellectual circles, writer of works that still carry influence today – father of science, advocate of empiricism and induction as a scientific method and of skepticism in knowledge as a foundation principle.
As a reader, I’ve appreciated Bowen’s “full-life” presentation, but her prose felt emotionally flat (which surprised me, given one prior experience with a Bowen work on the writing of the US Constitution). I found her treatment of Bacon’s scholarly works to be cursory, if admiring. I’ve returned to Loren Eiseley’s essays (The Man Who Saw Through Time) for a more satisfying review of our intellectual debts to Bacon, and I look forward to dipping into some of Bacon’s works directly. Read this book to gain an overview of Bacon’s life and times, but don’t stop there.
July 10, 2011
Not a scholarly work, but a well-written introduction to the life of Bacon. Bacon is sometimes presented as the real author of Shakespeare's works, but it's hard to see how he would have had the time to write them given his prodigious accomplishments in politics and philosophy.
Bacon, as described by Bowen, had two ambitions: the ambition of the will and the ambition of the understanding. The ambition of the will imposed on Bacon, the son of Queen Elizabeth's favorite chancellor, the obligation to follow in his father's footsteps to serve his queen until finally attaining the same position as his father under James I, only to lose it by being impeached for bribery on a somewhat trumped-up accusation. He served loyally and brilliantly as he became an acknowledged expert and interpreter of English law. His ambition of the understanding, which he followed in his spare time and which he professed to be more in alignment with his character than his more worldly ambition, is what he is mainly remembered for. His philosophical achievement was to proclaim the rejection of Aristotelian explanations of the natural world and insist that the way to learn about nature is through experimentation. Though not the first to make such strong arguments in favor of scientific methods--his namesake the Franciscan friar Roger Bacon had made similar pronouncements 3 centuries earlier--Francis perhaps sensed the slow drippings of scientific discoveries of his day, to which he tried to contribute, and realized that those drops would eventually give way to the deluge we have today. The aim of scientific discoveries, for Bacon, was to improve the condition of humankind. Though the book is better at giving an account of Bacon's ambition of the will, it still gives the reader a decent summary of his intellectual accomplishments.
Bacon, as described by Bowen, had two ambitions: the ambition of the will and the ambition of the understanding. The ambition of the will imposed on Bacon, the son of Queen Elizabeth's favorite chancellor, the obligation to follow in his father's footsteps to serve his queen until finally attaining the same position as his father under James I, only to lose it by being impeached for bribery on a somewhat trumped-up accusation. He served loyally and brilliantly as he became an acknowledged expert and interpreter of English law. His ambition of the understanding, which he followed in his spare time and which he professed to be more in alignment with his character than his more worldly ambition, is what he is mainly remembered for. His philosophical achievement was to proclaim the rejection of Aristotelian explanations of the natural world and insist that the way to learn about nature is through experimentation. Though not the first to make such strong arguments in favor of scientific methods--his namesake the Franciscan friar Roger Bacon had made similar pronouncements 3 centuries earlier--Francis perhaps sensed the slow drippings of scientific discoveries of his day, to which he tried to contribute, and realized that those drops would eventually give way to the deluge we have today. The aim of scientific discoveries, for Bacon, was to improve the condition of humankind. Though the book is better at giving an account of Bacon's ambition of the will, it still gives the reader a decent summary of his intellectual accomplishments.
August 6, 2016
One measure of a biography of an author is whether it makes you desire to read the work. After reading The Temper of a Man I pulled my copy of "Essays and New Atlantis" off the shelf to add to my soon to be read list.
While this biography of Francis Bacon contains much history, it reads well and keeps the reader engaged. The author characterizes the book more as an introduction to Bacon than as a biography, but one gets an understanding not only of the life and times of Francis Bacon but of his manifold interests.
Having recently read a biography of Galileo (somewhat a contemporary of Bacon's) I found the comparison of life in that time to be instructive and enlightening as well.
This is perhaps not a book for a historian as much as for the person interested in history; for that person I can readily recommend it.
While this biography of Francis Bacon contains much history, it reads well and keeps the reader engaged. The author characterizes the book more as an introduction to Bacon than as a biography, but one gets an understanding not only of the life and times of Francis Bacon but of his manifold interests.
Having recently read a biography of Galileo (somewhat a contemporary of Bacon's) I found the comparison of life in that time to be instructive and enlightening as well.
This is perhaps not a book for a historian as much as for the person interested in history; for that person I can readily recommend it.
October 7, 2020
Marvellously, beautifully written - a work of literature in itself. However, there are absolutely no references (or even a bibliography), so even though it feels very well researched, it is pretty much useless. Also, a few people may object to some of the opinions implied (but then again, it was written in the early 1960s).
Read
March 12, 2022A brief “invitation”, to use the author’s term, to the place in history of Bacon: in addition to being a central figure in the development of the scientific method as well as one of the great masters of early Modern English he was also involved in the early stages of the political struggle that ended the rule by kings and replaced it with the rule by Parliament. I found the book easy to read, enjoyable and fascinating.
February 7, 2021
"This was a man in whose debt the world is proud to live."
-- the author
So beautifully written, it's no surprise that two decades later she'd win the National Book Award (for writing about Bacon's enemy, Sir Edward Coke.) I would've enjoyed it all the more if I had a greater understanding of 17th century English government, its legal system, and law in general.
-- the author
So beautifully written, it's no surprise that two decades later she'd win the National Book Award (for writing about Bacon's enemy, Sir Edward Coke.) I would've enjoyed it all the more if I had a greater understanding of 17th century English government, its legal system, and law in general.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 13, 2025
I thought this book, published in 1963, was a good biography of Francis Bacon, from his early life through his rise and precipitous fall from political power, largely due to the machinations of his enemies and the weakness of King James, who confessed that he sorely missed Bacon's good counsel after he was gone. The book does a fine job of explaining Bacon's (relative) innocence of corruption (bribery) charges, in a system thoroughly corrupt if judged by today's standards and in which he was held to account for his servants' wrongs, of which, to an extent, he was unaware. He would be the scapegoat, the first person to be impeached for behaviors prevalent in the courts of the time.
Bowen's book makes it clear that Bacon was more blameless than most, but it was the King's desire that he plead guilty, to divert Parliamentary reformers' attention away from the King and his favorite Lord Buckingham's own abuses of office concerning monopolies. (For a more recent treatment, see Nieves Matthews, "Francis Bacon: The History of a Character Assassination" [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996]. Other good older treatments include Alfred Dodd, "The Martyrdom of Francis Bacon" (London: Rider, 1946), William Hepworth Dixon, "Personal History of Lord Bacon" (London, 1861), and James Spedding, "Evenings with a Reviewer: Or, Macaulay and Bacon," 2 vols. (London, 1881).
Bowen also devotes thirty pages to the "noble five years" after his impeachment in which he saw through to publication so many important writings. Bowen states in her "Author's Note" that she intended the book to be an "introduction" or "invitation" to Francis Bacon, a more "intimate" portrait of him than had previously been offered.
In college, my history class read Catherine Drinker Bowen's biography of Edward Coke, "The Lion and the Throne" (1957). In it, Bowen talked a fair bit about Francis Bacon, as the two men were rivals personally (having courted the same woman, Elizabeth Hatton) and professionally, vying for the same offices. In an article in "The Atlantic" some time ago, Bowen stated that Bacon was the historical figure she would have most liked to spend time with. Her title for this book came, apparently, from her opening quotation from Plutarch's "Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans": 'Authority and place demonstrate and try the tempers of men, by moving every passion and discovering every frailty.' There are eight pages of black-and-white illustrations of Nicholas and Anne Bacon, Gorhambury, Queen Elizabeth I and King James, the Earl of Essex, and the Cecils (after p. 118). The book has an index but no footnotes or bibliography.
It may interest readers to learn that there is a new biography of Anne (Cooke) Bacon, written by Deborah Spring, called "Lady Anne Bacon: A Woman of Learning at the Tudor Court" (Hatford: University of Hertfordshire Press, Oct. 2024).
Bowen's book makes it clear that Bacon was more blameless than most, but it was the King's desire that he plead guilty, to divert Parliamentary reformers' attention away from the King and his favorite Lord Buckingham's own abuses of office concerning monopolies. (For a more recent treatment, see Nieves Matthews, "Francis Bacon: The History of a Character Assassination" [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996]. Other good older treatments include Alfred Dodd, "The Martyrdom of Francis Bacon" (London: Rider, 1946), William Hepworth Dixon, "Personal History of Lord Bacon" (London, 1861), and James Spedding, "Evenings with a Reviewer: Or, Macaulay and Bacon," 2 vols. (London, 1881).
Bowen also devotes thirty pages to the "noble five years" after his impeachment in which he saw through to publication so many important writings. Bowen states in her "Author's Note" that she intended the book to be an "introduction" or "invitation" to Francis Bacon, a more "intimate" portrait of him than had previously been offered.
In college, my history class read Catherine Drinker Bowen's biography of Edward Coke, "The Lion and the Throne" (1957). In it, Bowen talked a fair bit about Francis Bacon, as the two men were rivals personally (having courted the same woman, Elizabeth Hatton) and professionally, vying for the same offices. In an article in "The Atlantic" some time ago, Bowen stated that Bacon was the historical figure she would have most liked to spend time with. Her title for this book came, apparently, from her opening quotation from Plutarch's "Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans": 'Authority and place demonstrate and try the tempers of men, by moving every passion and discovering every frailty.' There are eight pages of black-and-white illustrations of Nicholas and Anne Bacon, Gorhambury, Queen Elizabeth I and King James, the Earl of Essex, and the Cecils (after p. 118). The book has an index but no footnotes or bibliography.
It may interest readers to learn that there is a new biography of Anne (Cooke) Bacon, written by Deborah Spring, called "Lady Anne Bacon: A Woman of Learning at the Tudor Court" (Hatford: University of Hertfordshire Press, Oct. 2024).
June 22, 2016
A very sympathetic view of Bacon. He made amazing contributions to British law and scientific theory. He would have preferred the life of an academic and scientist but he was forced to accept a life in law and politics. How he found the time to write about his wide interests is a mystery. A most interesting account of his rise and fall. Not many are aware of his impeachment and disgrace near the end of his life. Curl up and enjoy for a few days - it is an easy and pleasant read and will enlarge your understanding of life during the time of King James I.
Want to read
September 3, 2014Item Description: Little, Brown & Company. Book Condition: Very Good. Hardcover w / dustjacket. . Very good condition; edges, corners, and covers of book show minor wear. No underlining; no highlighting; no internal markings. DJ is only good. Book club edition. In sealed plastic protection. 1963. Hardcover w / dustjacke
1399.00
1399.00
Read
July 29, 2011was difficult to hang with this book. learned some history of the times but could not decide if i liked bacon or not
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews