Review: Very well researched and written
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 2, 2013
I enjoy reading about people's lives, people that have achieved something, so that is I was quite intrigued when I coincidentally found this book a few weeks after discovering who Edmonia Lewis was, an American sculptor from African origins whose life began in the middle of the 19th century. Her interest in sculpture came to the fore when studying under Edward Augustus Brackett, a renowned sculptor from that period, with Civil War and African/American heritage at the fore.The influences and inspiration from her early works were quite revealing and perhaps not too surprising of that era and it soon came to pass that a considerable reputation was in the making and the eventual worldwide notoriety followed.If you are not of an academic or scholarly mind, you might find this of little interest or value and that is fair enough as it is not intended to be "light reading". With many modern biographies there is usually a mixture of the life with humor attached somewhere but this has a far more serious tone throughout. However, if you are of an academic or scholarly mind, or even just have a general or passing interest in history, then this should be on your list of books to read.On a final note, the one thing that stood out above everything else was the depth of research that must have been required to complete this work. It is easy enough to track down Edmonia Lewis on Google but that barely scratches the surface. The amount of research is something I have a great deal of admiration for and I am guessing finding a lot of this information was probably not easy so full marks must go to Harry and Albert Henderson.