Extraordinary
by
Dick Prosapio © 2003
Responsible historians want to get the facts
straight, and that's not an easy task. They know, just as we do, the
truth of the saying, "The victors write the history". In addition
there's the distortion that takes place as the event recedes in time
and first person accounts, unreliable as they can be, are lost and
we are left with second, third, fourth hand and finally mythical
reports of what "really happened".
In this regard I happened upon an extraordinary
find while staying in Carlisle, PA when Elizabeth's cousin loaned me
a book by a man considered to be a possible family ancestor, W. E.
Woodward.
William Woodward, it turns out, was the one who
introduced the word "bunk" into the language, as in de-bunking.
That came from his novel by the same name, and was based upon a
character in his book who liked taking the "bunk out of things". To
this end Woodward became dedicated. That meant he was going to do
his homework and when he set out to do a biography of U. S. Grant,
he did even more, he managed to write with such skill of the time
Grant lived in, and, as a result, gave us, "Meet General Grant" an
account of the tumultuous times from just before the Civil War until
the end of Grants life in 1885 that brings history to life in the
here and now.
The book was first published in 1945 and I was
amazed to find it still available on Amazon.in paperback or hard
cover with reprints as late as '91.
Winston Churchill said of Woodward that he was the
finest biographer writing in English and I'm sure that statement was
based upon the fact that beyond the wealth of information and
thorough research, there was Woodwords unique presentationhis
style. Far from a dry collector of facts, he's not only
readable today, like any really great writer, his intelligence
and wisdom transcend the decades.
Here's one example; "National heroes are
day-dreams of the human race. They are the symbols of the common
aspiration, of the common desire. No man is great enough to live up
to the reputation of a national hero."
Nice if we could get that piece of truth
into the mainstream of common knowledge. This straight speaking is a
constant in Woodword's writing, whether it be about George
Washington, Thomas Paine, or the life and time of Woodward himself
found in his own autobiography, "The Gift of Life" which he wrote at
72.
Woodward died in 1950 and left Americans a
wonderful legacy of history as a real life story. He's candid,
clear, and calls a spade a spade.
His picture of Grant is as wide and as deep as
Grant could be without either deifying him or making him less than
he was. He quotes Grant who had embarked upon a world tour and had
come to Venice; "It would be a fine place if it were drained." and
this was not an attempt at dry humor.
I couldn't resist that one.
With all the skill of an investigative reporter,
without the cynicism, Woodward ranged far and wide for his sources
from the Congressional Record, to old newspaper accounts, to
interviews with principals, to books he found that are probably
buried under inches of dust today. His genuine objectivity is all
the more remarkable when you realize that though he was a Southerner
by birth, he wrote with consistent even handedness when it came to
the fairy tails both the North and the South have sung
themselves to sleep with and continue to live by. Some of those
tales have taken on the status of fact and are still alive
and well in contemporary histories. Woodward shot them down with a
clear eye in the early 40's, and spared no one, not even our highest
placed Saint; Lincoln. Yet he is never hostile or sarcastic in this
de-bunking style, he is not a Bierce or a Clemens. He is a writer
who sees humanity in failings as well as triumphs.
In the Foreword of the 1965 edition of the Grant
book he is described by History Professor James A. Rawley as, "a
joyous writer, exuberant in spirit." And this is clear when you read
lines like, "War has no more place in the complex modern social
structure than a dinosaur has in a drawing room."
If you are interested in real and readable
history, or just want a good book about the blazing of some of the
trails that have led us to where we are now, William Woodward is
worth discovering.
Dick Prosapio ©2003, All Rights
Reserved
