What So Proudly We Hailed
Francis Scott Key, A Life
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
What So Proudly We Hailed is the first full-length biography of Francis Scott Key in more than 75 years. In this fascinating look at early America, historian Marc Leepson explores the life and legacy of Francis Scott Key. Standing alongside Betsy Ross, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, Paul Revere, and John Hancock in history, Key made his mark as an American icon by one single and unforgettable act, writing "The Star-Spangled Banner."
Among other things, Leepson reveals:
• How the young Washington lawyer found himself in Baltimore Harbor on the night of September 13-14, 2014
• The mysterious circumstances surrounding how the poem he wrote, first titled "The Defense of Ft. M'Henry," morphed into the National Anthem
• Key's role in forming the American Colonization Society, and his decades-long fervent support for that controversial endeavor that sent free blacks to Africa
• His adamant opposition to slave trafficking and his willingness to represent slaves and freed men and women for free in Washington's courts
• Key's role as a confidant of President Andrew Jackson and his work in Jackson's "kitchen cabinet"
• Key's controversial actions as U.S. Attorney during the first race riot in Washington, D.C., in 1835.
Publishing to coincide with the 200th anniversary of "The Star Spangled Banner" in 2014, What So Proudly We Hailed reveals unexplored details of the life of an American patriot whose legacy has been largely unknown until now.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The man recalled only as the author of "The Star-Spangled Banner" here receives his first biography in over 75 years. It turns out, however, that Key was more than a mediocre poet and lyricist. He was broadly involved in much of the nation's public life until his death in 1843. A noted Washington lawyer, founder of the American Colonization Society, partisan of Andrew Jackson, defender of Sam Houston, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and defender of slaves, he counted himself among the nation's best-known civic figures of his time. He also knew most of the others in and around the nation's capital. This workmanlike study lays out the lesser-known facts of Key's life but what is mostly an un-nuanced factual account stumbles in two areas. Leepson, an experienced writer about Lafayette, Monticello, and even the American Flag, falls short of bringing Key and his era alive. But then Key himself didn't leave much of the kind of evidence that would allow Leepson to paint a truly rich portrait. The result is a book that effectively lays out the life and career of a worthy and notable figure without adding much to our historical understanding.
