Biographies & Other Monographs

The Education of Henry Adams: A Centennial Version

Cover of The Education of Henry Adams

By Henry Adams. Edited by Edward Chalfant and Conrad Edick Wright

Both a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and at the head of the Modern Library's list of the 100 best English-language nonfiction books of the 20th century, The Education of Henry Adams has long been revered as a great work of literature. With The Education of Henry Adams: A Centennial Version, editors Edward Chalfant and Conrad Edick Wright have at long last returned this celebrated book to the author's vision. Read more

542 pages
Distributed by the University of Virginia Press

$34.95 Hardcover (2007) ISBN: 978-0-934909-91-4
$19.95 Paperback (2008) ISBN: 978-0-934909-93-8

Francis Blake: An Inventor's Life, 1850-1913

Cover of An Inventor's Life: Francis Blake

By Elton W. Hall

This detailed biography charts the rich life of Francis Blake--inventor, photographer, philanthropist, and businessman. His passion for innovation changed the way Americans communicated when his major invention, the telephone transmitter, became the world standard. His experiments in high-speed photography placed him in the forefront of the photographic world in the 1880s; a substantial portfolio of his work still exists, selections of which appear in this book. The arc of Blake's life, from modest circumstances and initiative to wealth and independence, epitomizes how a gifted individual could create and re-create himself during America's Gilded Age.

232 pages, 21 illustrations (2003)
Distributed by the University of Virginia Press

$30.00 Hardcover (2003) ISBN: 0-934909-84-9

The Ice King: Frederic Tudor & His World

By Stanley Paterson and Carl Seaburg. Edited by Alan Seaburg

Front cover of the book The Ice King

In 1805, Bostonian Frederic Tudor decided that he would make his fortune shipping ice to the tropics—a plan his peers dismissed as ridiculous. Despite the many setbacks he encountered, Tudor refused to give up, and with more than dogged perseverance, he established markets in cities all over the world, from Charleston and New Orleans to Havana and even Calcutta. The biography chronicles Frederic's business adventures in colorful detail, but the authors also give us much more: they capture the dynamics of what was, in modern parlance, a dysfunctional family, rife with petty misunderstandings and persistent grudges. The Tudor whims and squabbles, played out on a global scale, make for an engrossing read.

256 pages, 23 illustrations
Published with and distributed by Mystic Seaport

$24.95 Paperback (2003) ISBN: 0-939510-80-4

The Power of Her Sympathy: The Autobiography & Journal of Catharine Maria Sedgwick

Edited with an introduction by Mary Kelley

Front cover of the book Power of Her Sympathy

Sedgwick (1789-1867), one of the founders of American literature, published six novels and nearly one hundred tales in a career that spanned nearly four decades. This edition presents Sedgwick's life through her autobiography, composed between 1853 and 1860, and selections from her journals, written between 1826 and 1854. The writings convey her thoughts about her family life and her professional experiences, and they also offer a window onto American culture between the Revolution and the Civil War. Living through a vital time in American history, Sedgwick addressed social and political dynamics with equal insight.

177 pages
Distributed by the University of Virginia Press

$25.00 Hardcover (1993) ISBN: 0-934909-35-0
$8.95 Paperback (1993) ISBN: 0-934909-36-9

Clio's Consort: Jeremy Belknap & the Founding of the Massachusetts Historical Society

By Louis Leonard Tucker

Clio's Consort describes Belknap's pivitol position in the creation of the Society, discusses his role as one of America's earliest cultural nationalists, and places his work in the context of 18th-century social science.

160 pages, 1 color and 17 b&w illustrations
Distributed by the University of Virginia Press