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Overview
The bestselling historical novel that exposes the less than honorable side of our Founding Fathers by the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist.
In this gripping and timely work, William Safire unveils the story behind the nation's first great political scandals. James Thomson Callender, the "scandalmonger" of the title, is an ambitious gossip-peddling editor secretly hired by Thomas Jefferson as a political weapon. After carefully damaging Alexander Hamilton's reputation, thereby paving the way for Jefferson's success, Callender is shunned by the very politicians on whose behalf he was jailed for sedition. Broke and betrayed, Callender seeks revenge by exposing an illicit affair between Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemmings, an accusation that ultimately cost Callender his career and would not be authenticated for two centuries.
By using actual letters, records, and notes to re-create dialogue and events, Scandalmonger embodies historical fiction at its best, politics at its most intriguing, and our Founding Fathers at their most notorious. For those who think that Washington sex scandals and lurid journalism are recent developments, this novel will be a revelation, for Safire shows how media intrusiveness into private lives-and politicians' cool manipulation of the press-are practices as old as the Constitution.
William Safire is a senior columnist for the New York Times. He is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary and is also the most widely read writer on the subject of the English language. A former speechwriter for President Nixon, Safire is the author of twenty-four books, including On Language, Lend Me Your Ears, and the novels Freedom and Sleeper Spy. He lives in Washington, D.C.
Synopsis
March 1, 2000
Just in time for Election 2000 and exploding any notion that the political sex scandal is a recent phenomenon, our press-hounded Founding Fathers star in an outrageous -- and fact-based -- novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist William Safire. With dialogue drawn from letters and historical records and notes that scrupulously separate fact from fiction, Safire's novel is studded with masterly portraits of George Washington, John Adams, and Aaron Burr. Read our excerpt from the prologue to Scandalmonger below.
Of Ages Past
Scandalmonger is dramatized history at its best and presidential politics at its most fascinating. For those who think that Washington sex scandals and lurid journalism are recent developments, this novel will be a revelation, for Safire shows vividly how media intrusiveness into private lives--and politicians cool manipulation of the press--are as old as the Constitution.
Editorials
Of Ages Past
Scandalmonger is dramatized history at its best and presidential politics at its most fascinating. For those who think that Washington sex scandals and lurid journalism are recent developments, this novel will be a revelation, for Safire shows vividly how media intrusiveness into private lives--and politicians’ cool manipulation of the press--are as old as the Constitution.Publishers Weekly -
Grammar maven, Pulitzer Prize-winner, novelist (Freedom) and erudite political columnist Safire delivers a sprawling, fact-based if somewhat stiffly written novel that will acquaint readers with several of the nation's first political scandals. In light of the recent White House brouhaha, it's fascinating to learn that in the days of the founding fathers, politicians were just as licentious and newspapermen even more scurrilous than some players in contemporary media. The narrative chronicles the career of James Thomson Callender, a Scottish immigrant pamphleteer whose sensational exposes of the private lives of public men destroyed reputations and altered the course of U.S. history. It is Callender who breaks the story about Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton that forces Hamilton to admit to adultery in order to protect his business reputation. Later, Callender is charged with sedition, for issuing "a statement intended to incite the hatred of the people toward their government leaders." But he is not deterred from subsequently disseminating the story of Thomas Jefferson's liaison with his slave, "Luscious Sally" Hemings, herself the offspring of Jefferson's wife's father and a mulatto slave. Meticulously recreating the stories and dialogue from diaries, newspaper accounts and court transcripts (there are several trials involving libel), Safire delivers nicely rounded portraits of Washington, John Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson and Aaron Burr. Callender's own suspicious death closes the tale, a case of real life providing grist for melodrama. Always meticulous with facts, Safire adds an epilogue chronicling the fates of the major characters, followed by more than 50 pages of detailed notes and sources and a bibliography, all of which will be catnip to history buffs. Despite its heft, the novel moves along at a good clip, since Safire's use of short chapters, snippets of dialogue and frequent changes of scene creates narrative momentum. Agent, Lynn Nesbit. (Feb.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.From The Critics
"A fresh and thought-provoking look at the monument set: George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, Aaron Burr, Meriwether Lewis, James Monroe and other dead
"Colonial all-stars are brought to life in these pages." -Rocky Mountain News (Denver)