The Wages of Fame - Softcover

"How do you write a book?" 24 year old Thomas Fleming asked bestselling writer Fulton Oursler in 1951. "Write four pages a day," Oursler said. "Every day except Sunday. Whether you feel like it or not. Inspiration consists of putting the seat of your pants on the chair at your desk." Fleming has followed this advice to good effect. His latest effort, "The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers," is his 50th published book. Twenty three of them have been novels. He is the only writer in the history of the Book of the Month Club to have main selections in fiction and in nonfiction. Many have won prizes. Recently he received the Burack Prize from Boston University for lifetime achievement. In nonfiction he has specialized in the American Revolution. He sees Intimate Lives as a perfect combination of his double talent as a novelist and historian. "Novelists focus on the imtimate side of life. This is the first time anyone has looked at the intimate side of the lives of these famous Americans, with an historian's eyes." Fleming was born in Jersey City, the son of a powerful local politician. He has had a lifetime interest in American politics. He also wrote a history of West Point which the New York Times called "the best...ever written." Military history is another strong interest. He lives in New York with his wife, Alice Fleming, who is a gifted writer of books for young readers.

Bestselling historian and novelist Fleming (Liberty! The American Revolution; Remember the Morning, both 1997; etc.) treats the period leading up to the Civil War in a story as stale and unappetizing as a month-old crumpet. When Jeremy Biddle arrives at the dock to meet his beautiful cousin Caroline Kemble, freshly arrived from Ohio, he brings along his two best friends: the large, affable George Stapleton and sardonic, tormented John Sladen. Both fall head over heels for Caroline and immediately become rivals for her affection. John has his brilliant anguish and unconventional political views to offer; George has moneylots of itand poetry. Caroline ultimately chooses George, largely because of his wily old grandfather, who suggests to her the kind of power she might have if she were to become the wife of a politician. John Sladen takes his loss hard and begins drinking and threatening to flunk out of Columbia, where he, George, and Jeremy were classmates. Out of pity, Caroline begins a brief and clandestine affair with him, all the while planning her wedding to George. (When she has a son, seven months later, she has no doubt who the real father is.) But Jeremy discovers this illicit connection and pays Sladen off to leave town. Caroline and George marry, and George embarks on his political career: first traveling out west to meet Andrew Jackson; becoming a Democrat and winning a seat in Congress as New Jerseys senator; attempting to navigate the treacherous waters of slavery and its profound affect on American life and politics; and finally making an unsuccessful bid for the Presidency. Meantime, Caroline is his political puppeteer, pulling the strings behind the scenes and making her own evil bargains with the fame and power that are her true loves. Compelling historical events are rendered dreary by utterly ho-hum writing and flat, cartoonish characterizations. Maybe the TV mini-series this is sure to spark will be livelier. ($100,000 ad/promo) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.