Do we need the entire case - the subject of Paul Collins’s recent “ Blood & Ivy” - retold to us simply because the Longfellows wrote about it in diaries and letters? Maybe. In 1849 businessman George Parkman was murdered by Harvard chemistry professor John Webster. Such digressions, however informative or entertaining, sometimes seem out of proportion to their biographical importance.
Similarly, when Fanny dies horribly after her clothes accidentally catch fire, we are told at length about the dangers of crinoline in the age of candles. Basbanes 2,149 ratings, 4.04 average rating, 172 reviews Open Preview A Gentle Madness Quotes Showing 1-3 of 3 For him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, this book from its owner, Let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. While making a small point he refers to “the late Daniel Aaron, the founding president of the Library of America, and a distinguished historian of American literature at Harvard who was a champion of Longfellow’s work until the day of his death in 2016 at age 103.” Sometimes these identifications grow into actual brief biographies. A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books by Nicholas A. Still, this practice sometimes comes across as obsessive. Like any newspaperman, Basbanes helpfully identifies the many, often fascinating people mentioned in his text.
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