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All The Great Prizes : The Life Of John Hay, From Lincoln To Roosevelt (2013)

by John Taliaferro(Favorite Author)

4.09 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1416597301 (ISBN13: 9781416597308)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Simon & Schuster

review 1: This was a great book about, arguably, the greatest Secretary of State in US history. His achievements were many including the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty, and his handling of the Boxer Rebellion and the Philippine uprising. He served two presidents as Secretary of State but counted most presidents of the latter half of the 19th century as acquaintances. He began his career as Abraham Lincoln's secretary during the Civil War. He was a famous writer in his time and if you want a sample of his writing look up the Bixby Letter which you might recognize from Saving Private Ryan. What an enormous character and what an enormous book.
review 2: I've been interested in John Hay since first realizing he began his government career with Lincoln and ended it as Ted... moredy Roosevelt's Secretary of State. He served the intervening Presidents in various capacities along the way and was present at the deathbeds of both Lincoln and McKinley. This is a very readable biography about an interesting man whose life spanned great eras in American history. Hay was great friends with the historian Henry Adams and Clarence King,the first head of the U.S. Geological Survey. Together with the wives of Adams (Clover)and Hay (Clara) they formed the self-named Five of Hearts, a group of intellects who gathered for tea and talk in Washington D.C., where Hays and Adams were next door neighbors. (Unbeknownst to the other members at the time, King also had a wife, a black woman whom he married under an assumed name. He "passed" for black and told his wife he was a steelworker and Pullman porter, which accounted for his long absences while he lived out his double life. It was apparently a true love match and they had several children together. He didn't reveal his true identity to her until he was dying. I look forward to reading the biography of this fascinating man - Passing Strange by Martha Sandweiss.) Hay and Adams had something else in common - they were both in love with a D.C. hostess, Lizzie Cameron, the niece of William Tecumseh Sherman, and this book contains many of their passionate love letters. Hay had many accomplishments in diplomacy for TR including the China Open Door policy and negotiations for the Panama Canal and during the Boxer rebellion. Hay and TR appeared to have a close relationship of mutual admiration, but TR took credit for most of Hay's work after his death. less

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