Chase
Prostate Cancer Update
A friend told me yesterday that he had looked, in vain, here on my website for an update on my prostate cancer. Here is an update. I am recovering well from my prostate cancer surgery on July 2. I am walking, running a bit, and could I think do some cycling, although Dr. B tells…
Read MoreChase and Death
Among other things, I have been thinking about Salmon Chase, about the way in which he faced death over and over during his own life. I wanted to quote and comment on a few of his many letters about death. The first major death in Chase’s life was that of his father, who died in…
Read MoreSeward Prize; Chase Contract
I learned yesterday that my Stanton biography has won the Seward prize for Civil War biography. This is an annual award, presented by the Civil War Forum of Metropolitan New York, for the best biography of a Civil War figure. I am the first person, I am told, to win this award twice, first for…
Read MoreNew Dog
It has been a hectic few weeks: a trip to Tucson for my father’s birthday, hosting Christmas here at the house, my mother in the hospital. But the most dramatic development is in the headline and the picture; we have a new dog. We purchased her just before Christmas, from a northern CA breeder, meeting…
Read MoreJohn Niven on Salmon Chase
As I start work on Salmon Chase, I am greatly indebted to John Niven. Starting in 1984, Niven led a team of scholars that gathered the papers of Salmon Chase. They published both a microfilm edition AND a five-volume printed version of Chase papers. In the midst of this massive project, Niven published in 1995…
Read MoreSalmon Portland Chase
I have more or less settled on my next subject: Salmon Portland Chase. Unfortunately, my agent and I were not able to reach an agreement on this book project with Simon & Schuster. So I am working to write a longer form version of the Chase proposal, for my agent to circulate among editors in…
Read MoreSixty
Tomorrow, September 7, 2017, I will turn sixty. I do not feel especially old. I still spend lots of time out running and cycling and walking. Indeed I probably spend more time exercising now than I did when I was younger, in an effort to prove to the world that I am not old. Why…
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