But “Washington” also has a simpler raison d’être. The sheer volume of new research easily validates Mr. Flexner and the reading public’s impression that the story of Washington’s life is already well known.
Chernow argues that this project has unearthed enough new material to warrant “a large-scale, one-volume, cradle-to-grave narrative” about Washington, despite the excellent work of biographers including Joseph J. His thoroughness in “Washington: A Life” is prompted by the Papers of George Washington, a research project that has been under way at the University of Virginia since 1968, has passed the 60-volume mark and is nowhere near complete. Chernow also paid a personal visit to the tooth at the medical library where it is stored.
Chernow was not content merely to write about the tooth and its larger implications, which range from questions about Washington’s apparent reticence in later life (did his dental troubles keep him from speaking?) to his harshly pragmatic attitude toward slavery (he purchased slaves’ teeth, perhaps for use in dentures). It was “a lonely lower left bicuspid,” according to Ron Chernow’s vast and tenaciously researched new biography. When George Washington was sworn in as the first president of the United States, he had only one original tooth left.
0 kommentar(er)
