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American Originals: The Private Worlds of Some Singular Men and Women
A collection of profiles of forty men and women whose accomplishments have altered history describes such well-known figures as Hemingway, Twain, Eleanor Roosevelt, Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Shirley Temple, and others
277 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 1991
About the author
Geoffrey C. Ward
100 books143 followersGeoffrey Champion Ward is an author and screenwriter of various documentary presentations of American history. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1962.
He was an editor of American Heritage magazine early in his career. He wrote the television mini-series The Civil War with its director Ken Burns and has collaborated with Burns on every documentary he has made since, including Jazz and Baseball. This work won him five Emmy Awards. The most recent Burns/Ward collaboration, The War, premiered on PBS in September 2007. In addition he co-wrote The West, of which Ken Burns was an executive producer, with fellow historian Dayton Duncan.
He was an editor of American Heritage magazine early in his career. He wrote the television mini-series The Civil War with its director Ken Burns and has collaborated with Burns on every documentary he has made since, including Jazz and Baseball. This work won him five Emmy Awards. The most recent Burns/Ward collaboration, The War, premiered on PBS in September 2007. In addition he co-wrote The West, of which Ken Burns was an executive producer, with fellow historian Dayton Duncan.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 14, 2015
This book is a compilation of Ward's articles and book reviews for magazines such as "American Heritage" and "Smithsonian". There are several good short, concise biographies of the famous and infamous. You can read most of the pieces in ten minutes or so, which makes this book a good one to travel with.
March 31, 2018
Got myself a copy of this book based on my respect for Ward's work on the Ken Burns documentaries: figured I could trust his approach and his style. And I was right about that.
When I opened the book I found a collection of essays about a happily eclectic range of historical personages, many of them previously published in AMERICAN HISTORY magazine. I figured that these brief entries would be perfect for the kind of pick-up-and-put-down-again reading I tend to do when whiling away a few minutes in a cafe or at home at the kitchen table. I was wrong about that: these are in fact the kind of you-can't-read-only-one entries that keep a reader turning pages and choosing one after another! I remained at the cafe with Mr. Ward and Abraham Lincoln, Clara Barton, the Barrymores, Alice Longworth Roosevelt and others for a good hour-and-a-half, and I stopped only because I wanted to have more of the American Originals to share my latte time tomorrow.
Ward writes accurately and sympathetically. The essays are valuable for their balanced evaluations of personalities, their well chosen historic anecdotes.
When I opened the book I found a collection of essays about a happily eclectic range of historical personages, many of them previously published in AMERICAN HISTORY magazine. I figured that these brief entries would be perfect for the kind of pick-up-and-put-down-again reading I tend to do when whiling away a few minutes in a cafe or at home at the kitchen table. I was wrong about that: these are in fact the kind of you-can't-read-only-one entries that keep a reader turning pages and choosing one after another! I remained at the cafe with Mr. Ward and Abraham Lincoln, Clara Barton, the Barrymores, Alice Longworth Roosevelt and others for a good hour-and-a-half, and I stopped only because I wanted to have more of the American Originals to share my latte time tomorrow.
Ward writes accurately and sympathetically. The essays are valuable for their balanced evaluations of personalities, their well chosen historic anecdotes.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews