George Keats of Kentucky
A Life
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- $29.99
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- $29.99
Publisher Description
John Keats's biographers have rarely been fair to George Keats (1797–1841)—pushing him to the background as the younger brother, painting him as a prodigal son, or labeling him as the "business brother." Some have even condemned him as a heartless villain who took more than his fair share of an inheritance and abandoned the ailing poet to pursue his own interests. In this authoritative biography, author Lawrence M. Crutcher demonstrates that George Keats deserves better. Crutcher traces his subject from Regency London to the American frontier, correcting the misconceptions surrounding the Keats brothers' relationship and revealing the details of George's remarkable life in Louisville, Kentucky. Brilliantly illustrated with more than ninety color photographs, this engaging book reveals how George Keats embraced new business opportunities to become an important member of the developing urban community. In addition, George Keats of Kentucky offers a rare and fascinating glimpse into nineteenth-century life, commerce, and entrepreneurship in Louisville and the Bluegrass.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Crutcher has a lot going for him when it comes to writing a bio of "the other" Keats brother he's an exhaustive researcher, he's already written a history of the clan (The Keats Family), and, for what it's worth, he's the great-great-great-grandson of his subject but his investigation mostly turns up legal and quotidian minutiae. Nonetheless, his work is occasionally illuminating, and he provides a valuable chronology of George's life (1797-1841). After their patriarch's death and the ensuing chaos of executing his Dickensian estate, the Keats siblings struggled financially; George set off in 1818 to make his fortune, eventually settling and rising to prominence in Louisville, Kentucky. But what begins as a focused portrait of what some have called the "business brother" is inevitably overwhelmed by John's affairs after all, one of George's goals was to make enough money to support the poet as he penned what would become canonical works of English Romanticism. Though thankfully devoid of turgid academese, this is still a work that will appeal primarily to specialized scholars. 91 color photos, 2 maps.
