LitPicks - February '10  

True Grit: This month we look at the lives of three real-life Americans who helped shaped the country— courageous, persevering, inventive, they found ways to do what needed to be done. Two are historical legends, and one will surely gain fame given the all-but-certain popularity of the book.

A Lighter Touch | Wonderfully Written | Great Works 



Half Broke Horses
Jeannett Walls, 2009
288 pp.

By Molly Lundquist
You can't help but read Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle and wonder where on earth her mother came from. (Not earth maybe, but...where?) Walls began this book, her second, writing about her mother but ended up focusing on her mother's mother instead.

A most happy decision as it turns out. Lily Casey Smith, reared in early 20th-century Texas, is an American original—smart, feisty and undeterred by setbacks that would unhinge the best of us. Her father, kindly and bookish, looms large in Lily's life. He encourages her to physical exertion and bravery, as well as scholarship. Lily always rises to the challenge—and goes well beyond.

With a labor shortage during World War I, Lily takes a teaching position in one of the most remote outposts of civilization. To get there, she must travel 500 miles on horseback, a trip that takes weeks. She is 15—and alone. This is only one of Lily's astonishing feats in a book filled with them.

Like Walls' earlier work, Half Broke Horses is a compulsive read. Not only does the author draw sharp, poignant portraits of her family, but she paints a breathtaking landscape of the West—its rugged terrain and the equally rugged men and women who eke out a living in spite of it.

If I have any reservations, it's Lily's unvarying voice—a problem that risks reader fatigue—and a self-regard, toward the end, that veers into arrogance. Still, I enjoyed Half Broke Horses—for its wonderful characterizations and its rich slice of Americana. It's a very good read.

Be sure to see our Reading Guide for Half Broke Horses.

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Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom
Catherine Clinton, 2004
304 pp.

By Molly Lundquist
Harriet Tubman is a real-life action hero: if James Cameron were to make a film of her life, he would have to invent nothing—nothing!—to juice up the screenplay.

Most of us know of Tubman's exploits to free slaves. But the number she rescued, the hardships endured, the risks to her life, the fame she attained...and so, so much more make this biography an especially stunning read.

You'll also read it with gall, given the disgraceful treatment of African-Americans before (of course), during and after the Civil War. Mistreatment of Tubman, as well. Despite her nationwide fame and her military service during the war—she headed up a spy ring and led a union raid, rescuing 750 slaves at one time!—it took her 30 years to receive the military pension due her.

Clinton's book is an objective, footnoted study—one woefully needed. No serious adult biography of Tubman has been written for over 100 years, a sad neglect of an American hero. But perhaps it's understandable given the fact that so much was undocumented due to the secrecy of her work and Tubman's life-time illiteracy—as well as her genuine humility.

But Clinton makes the best of this paucity by plumbing her many sources. She also situates Tubman's story in a larger historical context—including detailed discussions of slavery, national politics, and the underground railroad. It's truly fascinating.

For history buffs, biography lovers, and women's/civil rights advocates...this is a rich, significant work. I loved it.

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The Autobiography of Ben Franklin
Benjamin Franklin, 1771-1790
pp. 150 (approx.)

By Molly Lundquist
All the bio-pics you've ever seen from Hollywood? Walk the Line, Ray, Man On the Moon? Well, you can thank Ben Franklin—he invented the format, along with the Franklin stove, bifocals, and the lightning rod.

You know the pattern—the rise from obscure beginnings, through hard work and adversity, to ultimate success. Horatio Alger's rags-to-riches? Alger followed the narrative arc laid out by Franklin.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is one of the world's earliest non-religious memoirs (the genre didn't really exist then). It's the first articulation of the American Dream, as well as an intimate history of colonial life.

Franklin's story is wonderfully entertaining. He treats us to a blow-by-blow account of the young hero's humble origins in Boston, escape to Philadelphia, and later rise to wealth and fame. He's a scamp—cagey, funny, naive, wise, modest, and arrogant, all at the same time.

Here's a telling passage—the young bachelor is waiting for his impending betrothal to Sarah Read. To stem his impatience, he tells us that "the hard-to-be-governed passion of youth hurried me frequently into intrigues with low women that fell in my way" (my emphasis). Notice how he manages to accept responsibility yet exculpate himself in one sentence—a politician in the bud!

Once Franklin acquires his fortune as printer, newspaper owner, and author of Poor Richard, he devotes himself to the public good. His energy and inventiveness are astonishing.

Certainly, there are faults with the memoir: a narrative voice that is boastful while claiming humility; some overly long, drawn-out accounts of politics and funding; and a sometimes fragmented tale due to the fact that it was written over a 20-year period. Sadly, Franklin died before he finished, taking us up only to 1760. Thus, we never get his account of the struggle for independence and the passage of the U.S. Constitution.

But, like Harriet Tubman's biography (above)—if you love biographies, history, and rags-to-riches stories, Ben Franklin is an engaging work. Besides, it's the real thing.

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