Ever Hear of Henry Ward Beecher?

I hadn't. And yet in the 19th century he was the most famous man in America. Really. That's according to the book, The Most Famous Man in America by Debby Applegate which won this year's Pulitzer Prize in biography. I only found out about it because a friend was going to a talk by the author at the Old South Church and I tagged along. Dr. Applegate gave a fascinating talk. She started this project as an undergraduate and it took almost 20 years to complete.

The Beechers were a famous family. Henry's sister was Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. His other sister, Catharine, basically invented home economics as a study. Applegate described her as the Martha Stewart of her day. Henry was a preacher like his father. He was remarkably gifted as a speaker and had 3,000 people attend his services at the now famous Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn Heights, NY. Applegate described this as the first megachurch. Abraham Lincoln was wildly impressed with Beecher and attended his services twice before giving his Cooper Union speech. Beecher was outspoken about virtually everything. He was anti-slavery, pro-civil war, pro-temperance, for women's suffrage, and pro-Darwinism. His fame spread by train and telegraph. He was the first to bring flowers into the church, sent Connecticut rifles to Kansas to help free slaves (known as "Beecher's Bibles"), and brought slave girls into church to be auctioned off into freedom.

At the age of 57 he was accused of adultery with his friend's wife Elizabeth Tilton. Unlike today, it went to trial which lasted for months and literally generated more headlines than the Civil War. Applegate described it as the OJ trial of the day. There was apparently a news blackout on aspects of the war, but still. The trial had a negative affect on the suffrage movement. Tilton confessed and recanted, in writing, several times. One confession was taken by Susan B. Anthony.

I went to the talk with little interest. I left with a signed copy of the book and look forward to reading it (though there's a lot ahead of it on the reading list). Applegate was exceptionally skilled at presenting 19th century America in ways we could relate to and in pointing out the differences that we would not have expected that make it more interesting. She ended with a story about temperance, hoop skirts and a fact about pantalettes that was a riot.

As Sean Wilentz said of the book "If you thought that the personalities and machinations surrounding the Clinton impeachment scandal were interesting, you will find the Beecher exposé riveting."