A black-and-white bio of a colorful figure
Dan Sickles led a life deserving of a book.
Born into a Knickerbocker family, he got his political training in the New York City Democratic machine of Tammany Hall, became first secretary of the American legation in London at 33 and was elected New York Congressman on the same day his friend James Buchanan was elected U.S. President.
Later, as a general, Sickles led troops in the Civil War battle of Gettysburg, where a cannonball took one of his legs.
He also was a philanderer, having affairs with Queen Isabella of Spain and with famed prostitute Fanny White, whom he introduced as Miss Julia Bennett when they met Queen Victoria at a royal reception at Buckingham Palace. He was friend of several presidents, including Abraham Lincoln.
And, in a nifty bit of hypocrisy, he shot his wife's lover, Philip Barton Key — son of Francis Scott Key, who wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner" — in public, mere yards from the White House, and, through a combination of political connections and double standards, he got away with it.
That colorful resume makes it all the more puzzling that "American Scoundrel" comes across so dry.
The events of Sickles' life are presented in such a straightforward manner by author Thomas Keneally (winner of the Booker Prize for "Schindler's List") that, at times, the book seems much more like a recitation of facts than it does the biography of a colorful character who was prominent during a period of great national unrest.
Yet, the book is not without its strong points, and they come at just the right times. The chapter about the affair between Key and Sickles' wife, Teresa, is a particular high mark. Keneally is able to detail what drove Teresa to have an affair — and with Key in particular — how it was carried out and Sickles' reaction when it became public.
"Though Dan was certainly desolated by all aspects of this business, it was simply not within the code either of the time or of a man like Dan Sickles to be rendered more sad than angry at his wife's sins," Keneally writes. "Sadly for Teresa, he was required both by culture and by temperament to rage inordinately, to howl with reproach."
This combination of temper and code sends Sickles out to shoot Key in the streets of Washington. After he is acquitted of the charges, he again begins to rise in status while Teresa becomes shut off from the strata of society that once celebrated her for her charm and beauty, and she eventually dies from tuberculosis.
Sickles is awarded the Medal of Honor for his service during the Civil War, despite actions at Gettysburg that many felt were detrimental to the Union.
Still, by showing Sickles' treatment of Teresa and their daughter Laura, Keneally is able to illustrate why Sickles has earned the title "scoundrel."
When Laura, sick and battling alcoholism, needed money later in life, Sickles flatly refused for reasons unknown.
"Once more — for all — I repeat, that I have done my whole duty toward the person in whose behalf you write," Sickles wrote in a letter to his father. "As far as I'm concerned, she is dead and buried."
This statement shows Sickles at his most vengeful and is a wonderful window into his unscrupulous and unforgiving character. On the whole, however, those telling statements come too few and far between in "American Scoundrel."
