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FAME RECLAIMED FOR BEECHER

February 4, 2007 12:51 am

HISTORY IS truly heartless when the most famous man in 19th-century America is no longer known to the vast majority of citizens. Does the name Henry Ward Beecher ring a bell? At least it can be agreed that Debby Applegate's magisterial biography of this nearly forgotten man will change all that.

Beecher is introduced at the peak of his fame: steaming down the Atlantic Coast in April of 1865 to help celebrate the Union's recapture of Fort Sumter, the very spot where the Civil War had begun four years earlier. He delivered a stirring speech in which he blamed the South's political leaders, not its people. But within days the victorious journey abruptly turned around and headed north. President Lincoln had just been assassinated.

Henry was one of 12 children of Lyman Beecher, the last of the great New England preachers. Strong-willed but a loving father, Lyman wanted all seven sons to enter the ministry. And Henry, who blended a devotion to his father's faith with a spontaneous love of independent thought, eventually complied.

He followed the westward thrust of the new nation. As he gained a reputation as a stirring speaker, he was caught up in the abolitionist movement.

At first, Henry cautioned prudence, but the compelling logic of the cause drew him into its molten center.

Lyman's daughters were not to be sidelined by his sons. One pioneered women's education; another was an activist for women's rights. But a third became the "most famous woman in the English-speaking world, having sold millions of copies of her novels in dozens of of languages." Harriet Beecher Stowe is best-known for "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Harriet and Henry, who remained close confidants, could rightly have been called the most famous siblings in America.

Henry was naturally gregarious, fraternizing with dock workers as well as the gentry; much beloved of the ladies, he was disarming around authorities. His religious convictions soon yielded to the life-affirming pragmatism of his expansive generation.

He eschewed the fire-and-brimstone style, but, more like an inspired showman, he improvised his ministry, using slang and racy anecdotes, trusting his own intuitions.

He left his congregations in tears of laughter or weeping, and they loved it. They also loved him. His fiery sermons affirming the humanity of the slaves sounded less contentious than others', seasoned by his warm sense of humor.

Born in 1813 and living until 1887, his long and eventful life was threaded through the needle's eye of the century. If he was in fact once the most famous man in America, he certainly deserves that honor, and this biography finally does him justice.