biography

Review: Jonathan Edwards: A Life

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Cover image of "Jonathan Edwards: A Life" by George M. Marsden

Jonathan Edwards: A Life

Jonathan Edwards: A Life, George M. Marsden. Yale University Press (ISBN: 9780300105964) 2004.

Summary: A biography that features the thought, cultural and religious context, revivals, and ministry among Native Americans.

Many who hear the name of Jonathan Edwards never get beyond one lurid passage in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” one of the thousands of sermons Edwards preached. Sadly, because they haven’t even read the whole of that sermon, they fail to grasp that the theme is actually the saving mercy of God. Even less, they fail to grasp what a profound thinker Edwards was, perhaps one of the greatest the United States has produced. However, this Bancroft Award-winning biography more than amply redresses the balance for anyone who wishes to understand Edwards’ contribution to the cultural and religious history of New England and the what would eventually become the United States.

Rather than discuss the outline of Edwards’ life, with which this biography deals in careful detail, I want to discuss some of the distinctive insights I found in its pages. Whereas we might think of Edwards as a severe person, one of the things I realized was his absolute delight in God and his world. As he wrote in one of his journals, he believed the Creator made all things for “the communication of happiness” to his creatures. This insight was reflected in his own devotional life and contemplative walks. Likewise, it makes sense both of his love of natural science and his passion that his people would be on fire with the love of God.

I was also struck by the importance to Edwards’ career of powerful families who were for many years his patrons and then adversaries. Two families were especially important: the Stoddard and Williams families. Solomon Stoddard preceded Edwards as pastor of the Northampton church and was Edwards grandfather. The invitation to join Stoddard late in his life and succeed him established Edwards among the religious elite. The ongoing support of Colonel John Stoddard and the Williams family helped make his ministry secure both ministerially and financially. That is, until changed his standards concerning who might be a communicant member of the church.

Marsden traces the tension throughout Edwards ministry between his father’s ideas and those of Solomon Stoddard on communicant membership. His father believed it necessary for candidates for church membership to show evidences of spiritual conversion beyond mere profession of faith. Stoddard took a more relaxed stance, allowing those who professed faith to become members. He thought membership, the hearing of preaching, and communion could draw people into a deeper relationship with Christ. And when Edwards came to Northampton, this was the position he adopted, opposing his father. Marsden traces how Edwards eventually adopted his father’s stance, and how the Stoddard and Williams clans turned on him, spelling the end of his Northampton ministry.

Before that, however, came the revivals. Marsden traces the history of the local awakenings of the 1730’s, culminating in the Great Awakening of 1740-42, both locally in Northampton and on both sides of the Atlantic. He discusses the strategic partnership of Edwards and George Whitefield. And he covers Edwards role in defending the revivals against Old Light critics while addressing excesses. We learn of his efforts to extend and deepen those revivals into ongoing holiness, including the failed “solemn covenant.”

As significant as his pastorate was, perhaps Edwards’ writing was his major contribution. Not only did he write several accounts of revivals but he also addressed genuine versus counterfeit spirituality in Religious Affections. Coming out of a Reformed tradition, he was active in countering the rise of Arminianism. Particularly, this was so in The Freedom of the Will. Toward the end of his life, he worked on more extensive theological works. This included, A History of the Work of Redemption including a View of Church History. A feature of this biography is the in-depth summaries of Edwards’ works as well as the context in which they were written.

One of the other influential works of Edwards was his The Life of David Brainerd. The Edwards family supported Brainerd’s efforts in mission work among indigenous peoples. And when he succumbed to tuberculosis, Edwards’ daughter Jerusha nursed him, and was a companion on good days. She followed him in death four months later. Brainerd left journals describing his spiritual life, calling, and ministry. Edwards edited and published these, which became a classic mission work which I read in early adulthood.

Jonathan Edwards was a slave owner. Marsden documents this as well as Edwards’ defense of slavery. This does not occupy a major part of the book. However, it shows Edwards as a man of his time. The biography also discusses Edwards ministry among indigenous people in Stockbridge after leaving Northampton, his efforts to launch a school for their children, as well as the challenges of the war with France and opposition from powerful local elements. Marsden discusses the growing awareness of Edwards and others of how indigenous missions could be manipulated for colonial control.

Marsden’s biography provides a highly readable narrative while describing Edwards’ intellectual life. We also glimpse a pastor deeply concerned for the spiritual life and growth in holiness of his people. He understood human nature, although at times dealt clumsily with situations like the youth who were reading sexual material. He had a strong marriage, an able partner in Sarah, as well as godly children. Marsden weaves accounts of the family life into the narrative throughout. I would recommend this as the “go-to” work on Edwards.

Review: The Strain of Other Blood

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Cover image of "The Strain of Other Blood" by Patricia Allen

The Strain of Other Blood

The Strain of Other Blood, Patricia Allen. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802883544) 2026.

Editor’s Note 9/23/2026: This book has been pulled from publication by the publisher. The review, posted before this became known, remains for archival purposes.

Summary: Ruth Elaine Younger: excluded because of race from Episcopal order in the US later returns to establish an order.

“We don’t have nuns” intoned the Episcopalian guide. And yet they do. This is the biography of a strong-minded and -willed woman who founded an order of Episcopal nuns in New York City that continues to this day. She broke racial boundaries and yet often kept her race a secret. She cultivated relationships with the rich and famous including Madeleine L’Engle yet struggled with conflict with parents, board members and other sisters.

Ruth Elaine Younger grew up in an impoverished Harlem light-skinned Black family. She felt a call to an Episcopal religious order but was rejected because of “the strain of other blood.” Rejected in the United States, she was admitted as a postulant of the Sisters of St. John the Divine in Toronto. After early years of teaching on the Canadian prairie, she campaigned to establish the order in an urban U.S. setting, often running afoul of her superiors. Eventually, this led to her separation from the order.

Back in the U.S., she cultivated the support of Canon West and Bishop Donegan to form the Community of the Holy Spirit, setting up a convent at 621 W. 113th Street in New York, with a school nearby. The school quickly became known for its multi-racial staff and academic excellence. It drew families attracted to the high standards. But there were also challenges to Mother Ruth’s handling of finances and leadership of the school.

Beyond this, while those on the inside knew Mother Ruth was Black, this was often kept quiet. Mother Ruth used facial powder to further lighten her skin. She fought her family, who threatened to expose her identity. Patricia Allen teases out these conflicting strains in her biography. Also, Allen describes a woman who could sensitively recruit postulants but could be demanding and controlling. Finally, she traces Mother Ruth’s last years as she sought to hold onto control while declining in her effectiveness.

The portrait Allen gives us is of a determined Black woman whose persistence brought an order to life. Yet her strengths also were her weaknesses and one senses that most people feared and respected her more than loved her. One wonders if that’s just what it took to cross the boundaries she crossed. One also wonders at the psychic toll of “passing” as white. Patricia Allen has given us a biography of both a singular religious leader, and a complicated woman.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Nolan

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Cover image of "Nolan" by Tim Brown

Nolan

Nolan: The Singular Life of an American Original, Tim Brown. Grand Central Publishing (ISBN: 9781538726549) 2026.

Summary: A biography of Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan focusing on his career and the values that formed his approach to pitching and life.

“There was an athlete once, a pitcher, a ballplayer, who took the baseball every four or five days and set out to throw a no-hitter. Every time. To give up nothing. To give away nothing. To strike out everybody. To win every pitch, every inning, every game, until there were twenty-seven outs, and they turned out the lights and everybody went home. He threw harder than anybody else, and did that not for a year or five or ten, but for nearly three decades” (p. xvii).

That pitcher was Nolan Ryan. And Tim Brown’s description of Ryan in his Prologue captures the essence of what he will elaborate in this new biography of the Hall of Fame pitcher. He won 324 games, and probably would have won far more had he not played for low scoring teams. He pitched seven no hitters, his last at age 42, still capable of throwing 96 miles per hour fastballs. Not only that, he struck out sixteen players. No other pitcher has more than four. Over his career, he struck out 5714. The two active pitchers closest to him are more than 2,000 shy of that number.

Brown begins with his childhood in Alvin, Texas. It’s the place that formed his work ethic, his teamwork and family values.It is where he met Ruth in eighth grade. In many ways Nolan Ryan is the quintessential Texan. Even today, he and Ruth own a huge livestock ranch near Alvin. Then, it is also where a Mets scout “Red” Murff discovered Ryan, a “skinny high school junior with the best arm I have ever seen in my life.” Two and a half-years later, he would be pitching alongside Tom Seaver. Seaver’s discipline impressed the young man with so much raw talent. Ryan would help the Mets win the World Series. It would be the only one in which he would compete.

Brown traces his career with the Angels, Astros, and Texas Rangers. While with the Angels, Tom Morgan, a pitching coach, worked with him on his delivery. Radar measurements were inexact, and measured differently than today. So by today’s standards, he may have thrown as fast as 108 miles per hour in his youth. No wonder they called it “The Express.” Then he moved back to Texas, first with the Astros, not far from his home, Finally, he gave a lift to the struggling Rangers in the concluding years of his career.

One chapter of the book is devoted to Ryan’s no-hitters, the first in 1973, the last in 1991. Each game is summarized. Another chapter is devoted to the “bow-tie,” the times Ryan hit batters. It exposes what a fierce competitor, determined to absolutely dominate hitters. There are recollections of a different, more generous Ryan, in the clubhouse, including the son of a long-time batting coach, Sid Holland.

Brown takes us through the struggles of his last year, when age finally caught up with Ryan, and the game with Seattle when an elbow ligament finally gave out. Characteristic of the man, he simply walked off the mound, said “I’m done,” and didn’t pitch again. Brown wonders whether we will see the likes of him in our “pitch counts” approach to pitching where it is rare for a starter to pitch a complete game.

The last chapters turn to his life after baseball. He did serve as president of the Rangers, setting them on a competitive path, until rivals pushed him out.. But much of his life was on his ranch, with Ruth, and his family. Meanwhile, Alvin would forever show the marks of the town where Nolan Ryan grew up.

I enjoyed the way Brown mixes accounts of his career with insights into Ryan as a person. Nolan Ryan was far more than a gifted pitcher. Brown explores the inner dynamics that contributed to such incredible staying power at such a high level. I wonder with Brown if we will see the likes of him again

Review: The Old Ball Game

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Cover image of "The Old Ball Game" by Frank Deford

The Old Ball Game

The Old Ball Game, Frank Deford. Grove Press (ISBN: 9780802142474) 2006.

Summary: A dual biography of John McGraw and Christy Mathewson of the New York Giants and their partnership in elevating the game.

Muggsy and Mattie. Those are the nicknames of the subjects of this dual biography of John McGraw and Christy Mathewson. Two men could not be more different. McGraw grew up in a hardscrabble Irish community and was a scrapper as ballplayer and manager. He fought with umpires, often getting ejected from games. Mathewson was the good looking, college-educated pitcher, the poster child for “muscular Christianity.” Surprisingly, they got along so well that they and their wives shared lodgings for many years. The secret, Frank Deford reveals, is that they loved the art and strategy of the game, and not just the physical athleticism.

In this work, veteran sportswriter Frank Deford combines a dual biography of the two men with a study of their unique partnership. Together, they elevated the New York Giants, and professional baseball, from mediocrity to greatness. They were a part of the transformation of baseball from poorly run teams of “ne’er do wells” to increasingly well-managed and more highly disciplined teams. This was accompanied by a move from ramshackle, small stadiums to modern concrete and steel ballparks able to accommodate the larger crowds the game attracted.

But it almost didn’t happen. Specifically, Mathewson signed for a mediocre Giants team under poor ownership. And McGraw loved his wife’s home of Baltimore, coming to manage the new Baltimore franchise in the American League. From 1900 to 1902, Matty showed only glimpses of future greatness, including a no-hitter in 1901. But McGraw was finding out he didn’t fit the manager mold of Ban Johnson, the organizer of the American League. So he was forced out in 1902. Then New York hired him, along with a pitching ace from Baltimore, “Iron Man” McGinnity.

By 1905, they won the pennant and agreed to play in the nascent World Series against the Philadelphia Athletics. While there had been a couple previous “inter-league series” this was the first to garner national attention. Deford takes us through game by game, chronicling the utter mastery of Mathewson over the A’s. He won three shutout games, with Iron Man winning the other in a five game series. McGraw’s Giants dominated.

However, they never repeated this success during Mathewson’s years despite a number of 30 game seasons for Mathewson and pennant wins. They missed out on one pennant due to a baserunning error at the end of a game that would have put the Giants in the Series. Although the winning run scored, the baserunner on first never tagged second base. The error was spotted, the ball thrown to second and the run nullified. While everyone on the Giants insisted he had tagged second, Mathewson stood out by saying he didn’t. Then in 1912, a dropped fly ball cost Matty a victory and the Giants a the Series.

McGraw was know as “The Little Napolean,” not only for his size but his tight control of how his team played. A mark of the confidence he had in Matty is that he was the only one permitted to call his own game, including positioning his fielders. He tried to keep his players sober by tight discipline, including some with drinking problems. Sadly, alcohol would contribute to his own ill health in later years. Players stopped listening to him. He finally hung it up in 1932, dying two years later.

However, tragedy came for Mathewson young. One brother died of tuberculosis, another took his own life. But Mattie kept winning over twenty games a year until 1914, after which his arm gave out. He won only a handful more, finishing with 373 wins. In 1916, McGraw helped Matty get a managing job in Cincinnati. But he wasn’t there long before going to war. He was never the same after, debilitated by gas exposure. His lungs weakened, he contracted tuberculosis. He returned to the Giants as a coach, recovered briefly in 1922, but worsened in 1924, dying the next year on October 7, at the end of the first game of the 1925 World Series.

Deford’s account focuses less on statistics than on the character and achievements of the two men. Together, they helped lift the Giants from mediocrity in 1902 to become a powerhouse team through the rest of the decade. They attracted record crowds to the re-built Polo Grounds. Mathewson defined the art of pitching with his consummate control. McGraw became the model of the tough guy manager, later exemplified by Earl Weaver, and Woody Hayes and Bobby Knight. All in all, it is a fascinating account–a good way to begin another season of baseball.

Review: The Last Manager

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Cover image of "The Last Manager" by John W. Miller

The Last Manager, John W. Miller. Avid Reader Press (ISBN: 9781668030929) 2025.

Summary: A biography of manager Earl Weaver, his baseball career, his strategic innovations, and his feisty character.

I try to review a baseball book or two every summer. But I don’t recall that I’ve ever reviewed a biography of a manager. Earl Weaver is a fitting subject, having managed four pennant-winning teams between 1968 and 1982, each time winning over 100 games. One of those won the World Series. He brought strategic innovations to managing that changed the game. Of course, he is remembered for his feisty run-ins with umpires, tirades that mixed vulgarities and Shakespeare and lots of dirt kicking. John W. Miller’s new biography, The Last Manager, paints a full-color picture of a most colorful figure in baseball history.

But Earl Weaver never set out to be a manager. Growing up in St. Louis, which had two baseball teams (the Browns and the Orioles), he was a star high school player and made it to the minor leagues, despite his small size. He even made it to spring training on the Cardinals in 1951, only to be sent back to the minors because the manager, Eddie Stankey was still playing, and his position was second base. That was the zenith of his playing career. Miller traces his decline over the next years as a player.

But Earl always was an analyst of the game. Watching games with his uncle, who engaged in sports betting, he developed the instincts of an analyst, figuring out statistics, like on base percentage, that mattered. He analyzed managers decisions, the good and bad. At Knoxville, in the mid-1950’s, he got his chance when the team manager did abysmally and everyone recognized Weaver might be better, including the owners. About then, Paul Richards was building the Orioles farm system, and recognized in Weaver the kind of baseball man he was looking for.

Miller traces his rise from 1957 to 1968 in the Orioles farm system, working his way up the ladder and helping develop the Oriole Way, eventually managing their Rochester team. Then mid-season in 1968, the call came to replace poorly performing Hank Bauer. The team played 48-34 after Weaver took over. He insisted on the Oriole Way, which detailed excellence, both on and off the field. Weaver didn’t allow his pitchers to waste pitches but put a priority on throwing strikes. He didn’t waste outs either. He was opposed generally to the hit and run and bunting. And he was the one to introduce the radar gun and figure out the optimum difference between the speed of fastballs and off-speed pitches (about 20 mph).

Weaver not only fought with umpires but also with players. His fights with Jim Palmer were legendary, but Palmer kept turning in 20-game seasons. It was never personal and part of Weaver’s genius was to push players to their best, sometimes by uniting the team against him. In the midst of his time with the Orioles, he figured out the transition to free agency. He recognized in Cal Ripken, Jr. the potential for the big shortstop.

He coached through 1982, and then a brief return in 1985-86. It didn’t seem his heart was in it when he came back. Sports broadcasting didn’t fit. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1996, only the thirteenth manager admitted..

Miller shows how the analytics Weaver developed have expanded in today’s much more highly computerized world. While managers are much more player-oriented as a rule, Weaver’s qualities of “leadership, passion, and motivation” are still key. Weaver’s approach to spring training and practice also continues to influence the game.

We also catch glimpses of Weaver off the field. He loved to garden and had a rivalry with his groundskeeper over who grew the best tomatoes. In retirement, he was a pioneer in developing sports videogaming.

I loved this biography for both bringing out Weaver’s character and its glimpse of “inside baseball.” Miller helps us appreciate how Weaver’s on-the-field antics revealed his fierce passion for his players. And for the baseball buff, it recalls those great Oriole baseball teams of the seventies, not built with big money but a good farm system and attention to the fundamentals. This has all the elements of a great baseball book!

Review: Mark Twain

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Cover image of "Mark Twain" by Ron Chernow

Mark Twain, Ron Chernow. Penguin Press (ISBN: 9780525561729) 2025.

Summary: Beyond literary greatness, the complicated, brilliant, tragic, and sometimes eccentric life of one of America’s greatest writers.

The United States has produced no one like Mark Twain. From printer’s devil to riverboat pilot to prospector. A prodigious writer, a globe-circling lecturer, and a businessman deluded by an over-estimate of his own shrewdness. A loving husband devoted to Livy in a once-idyllic household, that by degrees grew both toxic and tragic for two of his three daughters. And a colorful old man with eccentricities that most of us today would consider “creepy.” The reader who embarks on this 1000-plus page journey will find all this and more in Ron Chernow’s Mark Twain.

Chernow traces the youthful and early adult experiences of Twain, so formative both for his major works, and of his character. We learn of the poverty that Twain sought to escape by one get-rich scheme after another. The death of his brother Henry on a riverboat explosion filled him with both grief and guilt. Then there is his older brother Orion, who helped him early on but who wandered aimlessly through life, assisted by Twain even when Twain couldn’t afford it.

Then Chernow describes an idyllic period, when Twain’s writing and lecturing career begins accruing the fortune for which he hoped. Added to this, he married into wealth when he married Livy Langdon. In the years that followed three daughters followed, growing up in a spacious Hartford home that would haunt them for the rest of their lives.

They lived a lavish life at home and on the road, sustained in part by Livy’s fortune, but actually beyond their means. Twain sought to correct this in business ventures. Chernow traces a painful downward spiral, first of a publishing venture, and then the money pit of a failed typesetting machine. Twain so encumbered the family funds that it would be necessary to declare bankruptcy.

Twain would eventually work his way out of debt by writing and speaking but at a terrible cost. The family escaped to Europe for nine years to escape debtors and reduce costs. Relentless travel exacerbated the heart condition Livy suffered from. And Twain was emotionally unavailable and physically separated from his oldest daughter Susy, who was lesbian at a time this could not be spoken of. Twain, for all his “edginess” was pretty conventional when it came to matters of sexuality. Susy died while he was in Europe and he forever blamed himself.

Things could have been far worse for Twain, had he not received the help of Henry Rogers, A Standard Oil executive who helped get Twains finances on a sound footing. Chernow’s account makes him out to be both shrewd and selfless.

Livy’s worsening health combined with Twain’s youngest daughter Jean’s epilepsy left Twain a man besieged. In addition, a life of cigar smoking was beginning to take a toll on his own health. All of this opened the door for him to be taken advantage of by two assistants, Isabel Lyon and Ralph Ashcroft. Before marrying Ashcroft, it was clear Isabel had a strong emotional attachment to Twain. She worked for paltry wages, managed household and administrative tasks, and gained an unhealthy influence. She succeeded in exiling Jean to a series of asylums. Ashcroft also mishandled funds. The two were dispelled only when middle daughter Clara stepped in. Sadly, Jean was only briefly restored to the Twain household before she preceded him in an untimely death.

Chernow also offers an extensive account of Twain’s fascination with young girls, his “angelfish.” He formed a club for them with a special room in his house. He wrote endearing letters. While there is no evidence of any abuse, it was troubling strange, harking back to a youthful romance.

Finally, Chernow explores Twain’s religious views. He had little tolerance for conventional Christianity, to Livy’s dismay and the eventual erosion of Livy’s faith. Late in life, he wrote more openly about his skepticism. One wonders how much went back to his brother Henry’s death, as well as the other tragedies he experienced. This makes all the more extraordinary the long friendship with Hartford pastor Joseph Twichell. One wishes you could overhear some of their conversations.

I had mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, Twain, even at his most eccentric is a fascinating subject for a biography. But for the first time in reading a Chernow biography, I felt myself asking, ‘how much longer must this go?” This was most notable in the case of his business woes. I wanted to grab Twain and shake him and suggest that he ditch all this and write and lecture and just make rather than lose money. But one also felt this in the account of Twain’s relationship with both Susy and Jean and his entanglement with Isabel Lyon. All this was painful, but it also felt drawn out. Likewise, I found this so with Twain’s relationship with the “angelfish.”

This all needed to be there but I felt it overshadowed Twain’s writing. It’s not that Chernow didn’t chronicle that and assess Twain’s various works. But it seems that in this account, I felt the writing life just punctuated Twain’s private life and business ventures. I can imagine other readers might think differently!

All in all, this is another of Chernow’s landmark biographies. I suspect the challenge was the sheer plethora of documentary resources in Twain’s journals, letters, manuscripts, and other historical sources. Given that, it is perhaps a miracle that he was able to reduce all this to a thousand pages! Through all that, he succeeds in helping us appreciated the complicated and unique greatness of Samuel Clemens a.k.a. Mark Twain.

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Thanks for visiting Bob on Books.  I appreciate that you spent time here. Feel to “look around” – see the tabs at the top of the website, and the right hand column. And use the buttons below to share this post. Blessings! [Adapted from Enough Light, a blog I follow.]