All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay, from Lincoln to Roosevelt (Unabridged)
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3.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $34.99
Publisher Description
If Henry James or Edith Wharton had written a novel describing the accomplished and glamorous life and times of John Hay, it would have been thought implausible - a novelist’s fancy. Nevertheless, John Taliaferro’s brilliant biography captures the extraordinary life of Hay, one of the most amazing figures in American history, and restores him to his rightful place.
John Hay was both witness and author of many of the most significant chapters in American history - from the birth of the Republican Party, the Civil War, and the Spanish-American War, to the prelude to the First World War. Much of what we know about Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt comes to us through the observations Hay made while private secretary to one and secretary of state to the other. With All the Great Prizes, the first authoritative biography of Hay in 80 years, Taliaferro has turned the lens around, rendering a rich and fascinating portrait of this brilliant American and his many worlds.
Hay’s friends are a who’s who of the era: Mark Twain, Horace Greeley, Henry Adams, Henry James, and virtually every president, sovereign, author, artist, power broker, and robber baron of the Gilded Age. As an ambassador and statesman, he guided many of the country’s major diplomatic initiatives at the turn of the 20th century: the Open Door with China, the creation of the Panama Canal, the establishment of America as a world leader.
Hay’s peers esteemed him as “a perfectly cut stone” and “the greatest prime minister this republic has ever known”. But for all his poise and polish, he had his secrets. His marriage to one of the wealthiest women in the country did not prevent him from pursuing the Madame X of Washington society, whose other secret suitor was Hay’s best friend, Henry Adams.
With this superb work, Taliaferro brings us an epic tale.
Customer Reviews
Too bad he’s been forgotten
Two thoughts on this book: John Hay was a major force in American politics and popular culture for more than half a century. More important, it was the half century when America suffered and civil war and then rose to world domination, so it was an important time to be a star. Yet, somehow, this guy has been completely forgotten by the nation. Perhaps that is why we are failing so completely today; Obama, the Kardashians, and Miley Cyrus are now the focus of attentions, while giants are cast aside. Oh well.
The other point is one of education. This book is a perfect example of the best way to learn history. Most people read books about the primary players of the day (Washington, Lincoln, Churchill, etc.), but it is the secondary lights who really shape the world. If you want to see how and why America evolved from its low point to greatness in half a century, read this guy’s story not McKinley’s.
One other ironic aside. Hay criticized the nation of Spain in his book The Castilians for being “lead by people concerned with the digit bones of saints and splinters from the true cross.” Yet he ingratiated himself with three presidents by giving them jewelry with the locks of hair from Washington and Lincoln. Did he not see the similarity? This is not a criticism of the book or a swipe at Hay, it just struck me as ironic.