Ron Chernow didn't study history in college, and until now he has been known as our foremost "business biographer."
Educated at Yale and Cambridge universities, where he earned degrees in English literature, Chernow calls himself "a self-taught historian with an unplanned career — a series of happy accidents."
As a young man, he wanted very much to write fiction and figured he would support himself as an English professor or a critic while he cranked out novels. "For some strange reason," he said by phone from Philadelphia, "every time I wrote fiction, I got a very critical response, and when I wrote nonfiction, the reaction was good. So I gradually moved from fiction to history.
"I still have an unpublished novel in the drawer, but I found that the craft I was developing — for narrative and pacing, tone, imagery and point of view — got unexpectedly transferred to the writing of history. In my first book of history, 'The House of Morgan,' I reacted imaginatively to actual people and events the way a novelist reacts to fictional characters."
Having written three books about tycoons, he switched in his fourth to an American historical figure — Alexander Hamilton, whose life has never been adequately treated through biography. Considering Hamilton's major financial role in the founding of the American nation, it is not surprising Chernow would choose him.
Chernow was also drawn to Hamilton because of his brilliance. "In terms of sheer versatility, you'd have to pick Jefferson or Franklin, but Hamilton was nevertheless a universal genius. He had a mind that steadily deepened, making him probably the brainiest of the founders."
Even more interesting, Hamilton was a fast and prolific writer. His collected papers totaled 22,000 pages, and he lived only 49 years. "He could speak in perfect paragraphs for hours on end. I find the story of his writing of the Federalist Papers incredible. He published as many as five or six essays a week while maintaining a full-time legal practice. There is a Mozart flavor to his story. A man as brilliant as that is intimidating. His political enemies saw him as conceited to the point of arrogance."
Rarely did Hamilton refer to his insecurities, as he did when writing letters to Eliza prior to their marriage. "When someone is that driven and productive and has an overpowering need to prove himself, there is usually an underlying anxiety pushing that person. I spent five years with the Hamilton project, and I could scarcely find a reference to vacation or leisure."
Although his enemies considered Hamilton arrogant, Chernow has found that the majority of people who knew him found him to be "extraordinarily charming, a winning personality. He brightened up a room. Every person Hamilton met seems to have stayed his friend for life. Usually, people go from one set of friends to another, but Hamilton's friends were a growing army."
Of course, Hamilton was guilty of several lapses in judgment, most of which seem to have been concentrated in the final third of his life. "A lot of people pick up a Shakespearean quality in him — elements of Greek tragedy. They see him blessed with God-given gifts and making the most of those gifts. But he also had certain tragic flaws. His emotional intelligence seems to have been lacking."
According to Chernow, the most glaring example was the duel with Aaron Burr that ended Hamilton's life. Burr confronted Hamilton with negative comments he was alleged to have made about Burr, plus "even more despicable things."
So Burr sent Hamilton a communique asking specifically what the "despicable things" were. Hamilton was flummoxed because he had been making critical comments about Burr for many years. So he asked Burr to be more specific. "He was getting kind of professorial with Burr, and Burr went into full battle mode. We love Hamilton for being uncompromising, outspoken, physically fearless, a daredevil — but it is those characteristics that set him up for the duel. He never mastered the light touch. A line or two in reply would have done it."
According to Chernow, Hamilton's sexual affair, which included blackmail money with "Mrs. Reynolds, wife of James Reynolds," was also "a shocking lapse of judgment." Chernow suggests that, as secretary of the Treasury, "You would think he would be vigilant about his own reputation."
Hamilton found the woman attractive, and she made advances, which he failed to refuse. "And he was happily married to a self-effacing, loyal woman. I still scratch my head wondering why he did it. I gave a speech to a group of doctors in New York, and afterward a whole gang of psychologists rushed up to say Hamilton was a narcissist suffering from bipolar disorder, a person who is accomplished, self-confident to the point of invincibility, then he self-destructs."
According to Chernow, Hamilton had boundless ambition but he never talked about seeking the presidency. "It was not acceptable to talk about ambition in those days. Even Washington, when initially approached, said he would rather return to Mount Vernon than be president. Hamilton was a visionary. He could see cities, banks, factories, stock exchanges and corporations. However beautiful the ideal of gentleman farmers, the world he saw bears a startling resemblance to our society today."
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com