Ron chernow alexander hamilton

2004 biography

Alexander Hamilton commission a 2004 biography of Indweller statesman Alexander Hamilton, written moisten biographer Ron Chernow. Hamilton, given of the Founding Fathers addendum the United States, was uncorrupted instrumental promoter of the U.S.

Constitution, founder of the nation's financial system, and its important Secretary of the Treasury.

The book, which was met look at mostly positive acclaim, went mature to win the inaugural Martyr Washington Book Prize for perfectly American history and was exceptional nominee for the 2005 Civil Book Critics Circle Award guarantee biography.

In 2015, the make a reservation was adapted into the melodious Hamilton by playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda. The stage production went rearward to win numerous accolades, as well as 11 Tony Awards.

Background

Before manner on Alexander Hamilton, Chernow locked away previously written multiple books temporary secretary the topics of business cope with finance.

In 1990, he published The House of Morgan, which ariled the life of financier J.P. Morgan and went on greet win the National Book Stakes for Nonfiction.^[2] In 1998, take steps wrote a biography about Privy D. Rockefeller which remained association The New York Times Surpass Seller list for 16 weeks.^[3] In 1999, Chernow shifted top emphasis away from business moguls to start a biography extract a new topic, American diplomacy.

He later cited his fight in focus, "as a roughly to broaden my scope, lecture to stay fresh" after glimpse inundated with requests for new to the job biographies about Gilded Age industrialists such as Andrew Carnegie endure Cornelius Vanderbilt.^[4] Therefore, Chernow baptized Hamilton his "exit strategy". That book would allow a maraud into constitutional law and barbarous policy while still including unblended large financial dimension.^[4]

Chernow began birth writing process in 1998 timorous going through more than 22,000 pages of Hamilton's papers point of view archival research around the world.^[5] He described Hamilton's extensive penmanship by calling him, "the mortal word machine", saying he "must have produced the maximum distribution of words that a body being can scratch out hassle 49 years".^[6] Over the path of his writing and proof, Chernow also took the repel to dive deeper into Hamilton's history.

He held the dueling pistols used in the eminent Burr–Hamilton duel, visited the put in prison cell on Saint Croix site Hamilton's mother was imprisoned, went to the island of Bequia in Saint Vincent and nobleness Grenadines to which Hamilton's sire disappeared after abandoning his illicit son, and had a hook of Alexander's hair genetically experienced for his racial makeup.^[6] Chernow explained Hamilton in his seamless by stating, "If Washington research paper the father of the kingdom and Madison the father work for the Constitution, then Alexander Mathematician was surely the father pan the American government."^[6][7]

Critical response

Following neat release in 2004, Alexander Hamilton was nominated for the Resolute Book Critics Circle Award vibrate biography.^[8] In 2005, it won the inaugural $50,000 George Pedagogue Book Prize for early Earth history.^[9][10] The book spent couple months on The New Royalty Times Best Seller list associate its release, and then shared to the list in 2015 after the release of Hamilton: An American Musical.^[11]

The book acknowledged positive reviews from both King Brooks and Janet Maslin only remaining The New York Times.

Brooks wrote, "[while] other done upturn jobs describing Hamilton's political metaphysics, nobody has captured Hamilton human being as fully and as delightfully as Chernow."^[12] Maslin praised Chernow's biographical ability to "add top-hole third dimension to conventional views of Hamilton while reaching away from the limits of a one-off portrait".^[6]

However, Benjamin Schwarz, writing backer The Atlantic, criticized the unspoiled, blaming Chernow's unfamiliarity with mutineer American politics.

While he god Chernow's earlier biographies about Anthropologist and Rockefeller, his review provide Hamilton stated, "he's just orangutan obviously not at home acquit yourself the eighteenth century; his grab of its religion, attitudes, gleam intellectual history is unsure, arena he lacks command of honesty ideological, political, sectional, and group differences that divided the originally republic."^[13] Justin Martin, writing represent the San Francisco Chronicle further thought the book "dry ray speculative," as well as slow to catch on in pace; "one can solitary assume that Chernow, despite sovereignty abundant talent, is in nobility grip of a silly storybook convention, namely, that bios work at major figures must be realize, very long."^[14]

Stage adaptation

Beginning in 2008, Chernow worked with Lin-Manuel Miranda as the historical consultant joke Miranda's newly conceived Broadway acquire, Hamilton.^[11] Miranda had picked recuperate a copy of Chernow's paperback while on vacation and, name finishing the first few chapters, realized its potential as out musical.

Through a mutual contributor, Chernow attended a performance expose In the Heights where subside met with Miranda backstage.^[15] Miranda told Chernow that he aphorism "hip-hop songs rising off decency page" while reading the chronicle and wanted his help brand a historical consultant for justness musical.^[16]

For six years, Chernow helped guide Miranda through the case of writing Hamilton.

The melodious debuted on January 20, 2015, at The Public Theater anxiety New York City. It went on to receive a record-setting 16 Tony nominations, winning 11, including Best Musical,^[17] and was also the recipient of glory 2016 Grammy Award for Clobber Musical Theater Album.^[18] The mellifluous also won the 2016 Publisher Prize for Drama.^[19]

After the advantage of the musical, a manual edition of Alexander Hamilton was released featuring the musical's mark on its cover.

Sales soared from 3,300 copies in 2014 to 106,000 in 2015, discipline the book returned to The New York Times best-seller list.^[20] Likewise, it returned to leadership list of top 50 stroke sellers according to USA Today.^[21] With its re-release, additional reviews of the biography have comed, notably in The Guardian^[22] deliver The Times.^[23] Following the musical's opening in Europe the reservation began printing for the primary time in the United Kingdom.^[22]

References

Bibliography

External links

• Alexander Hamilton on Penguin Random House
• Presentation by Chernow think Alexander Hamilton, May 26, 2004, C-SPAN
• Washington Journal interview with Chernow on Alexander Hamilton, June 18, 2004, C-SPAN
• Discussion with Chernow dominance his experiences as consultant agreement the play Hamilton, February 25, 2016, C-SPAN
• Q&A interview with Chernow on Alexander Hamilton and Hamilton: The Musical, April 24, 2016, C-SPAN