Jane Kamensky

While I was aware of the artist John Singleton Copley before I made note of this book, I might not have picked it up had I not already read Prof. Kamensky's biography of the rise and fall of the Bostonian financier Andrew Dexter, and knew about the author's knack for writing about "characters." The thing about Copley is that he accomplished so much in spite of being something of a perennial outsider, but could wind up his life feeling like a failure; at least on the financial front. For Kamensky, Copley represents something of a filter through which to view the American Revolution and the inception of American nationality, as Copley is a representative of that mentality that when push came to shove to make an active political choice, he opted to make no choice and went into exile. That exile radically changed Copley's career trajectory, but it was a mixed bag in terms of happiness. Still, if you told the man that he would be honored as an artist on both sides of the Atlantic, and his children would ascend into the social elites of London and Boston he might think that it was all worth it; though being a prickly and anxious personality he would probably find reason to quibble.

Apart from that, Kamensky also spends a great deal of time on the profession and business of art during this period; maybe a little too much. It's with these matters that she occasionally feels like she's getting lost in the weeds.… (mehr)

Nominally the story of the string of bank failures largely induced by one Andrew Dexter Jr. in 1808, a big chunk of this book is actually about the project that Dexter took stupid chances to complete; a seven-story, multi-purpose building in Boston called the Exchange Coffee House. By the time Kamensky is done with this sorry tale she has given you a life of Dexter, an account of the construction and failure of the Exchange, and an overview of assorted related matters. However, this book is really a slice of Boston social and urban history, Kamensky having gone so far as to have commissioned a project to depict what the Exchange might have looked like, in all its dubious glory, before burning to the ground in 1818.

One could question whether Kamensky really tells any of these stories that well, and one might wish for a little more context, but I did get enough out of this book that it was worth my while. In this day and age of rampant conspiracies you could wonder whether this event had ever actually happened, so thoroughly that it had been forgotten; about the best monument to Dexter and his works is that scads of the bills he printed out still exist and are collectible in numismatic circles!… (mehr)

The beginning of this book is deadly dull, probably because most of Copley's early life is conjecture (WAY too frequent use of "perhaps"). However, once the American Revolution begins, it gives one a different perspective of the war that is very interesting. When the war is over, it becomes ordinary again. I suspect that the difference is that Copley moved to London at the start of the war, and the correspondence between him and his wife and other relatives gave a lot more information than was available about Copley in his youth. I wouldn't dismiss the book out of hand, but maybe start in the middle. ;)… (mehr)