“Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.”
William Shakespeare
If Stacy Schiff’s Samuel Adams: Revolutionary (The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams a book by Stacy Schiff (bookshop.org) is any guide, then Mr. Samuel Adams was one who had greatness thrust upon him. A shadowy figure to history, Adams could be considered the godfather of America’s Founding Fathers, for he pushed for independence far earlier than his contemporaries were prepared to do so. Shadowy, because much of what we know about Samuel Adams comes from second and third hand sources. For obvious reason, Adams was very cagey about leaving a paper trail behind.
While certainly not born to poverty, Adams was born with one foot in a cement block. His father ran into financial problems, and back then the debts of one generation were passed on to the next. But Adams was a bright young man and there was enough money for him to attend Harvard. Ironically, while at Harvard he gave a dissertation arguing against the colonies severing their bonds with the Monarchy.
After graduation, Adams attempted several business enterprises with less than stellar results. There is a brewery in Massachusetts named after him, but Adams was not a brewer. He raised hops, and apparently not very successfully. Thanks to some pull from friends and family, he was appointed as a tax collector. In those days, tax collectors were given a portion of the taxes they brought in. No chance of that ever being abused! Even so, Adams was an indifferent collector, which certainly didn’t help his finances.
Over time, Adams slowly morphed into the so-called radical we know him as today. Interestingly, Adams was not given to fiery oration. In fact, one might even consider him a bit of a stoic, in the proper sense of the word. Now days people believe that stoics try not to feel or show emotion. That’s incorrect. A true stoic has no problems with emotional displays or feelings, as long as they don’t override reason.
This behavior is probably why he was so successful in drawing people to his cause, in spite of all the risks that entailed. Pretty impressive for a man who was considered a bit of a wastrel in his youthful days.
Overall, I found Stacy Schiff’s bio of Adams to be quite interesting and educational, as well as an enjoyable read. I’m not a huge fan of biographies. If done right, they can be very enjoyable. If done wrong, they can be a real slog. Stacy Schiff’s Samuel Adams: Revolutionary is a biography done right.
I highly recommend it.
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Sad news to report: The Tattered Cover independent bookstore has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. For those who don’t know, The Tattered Cover was at once upon a time one of the largest bookstores in the United States, with well over 300,000 titles in its inventory. By comparison, when I worked at the regional flagship store for the now defunct B. Dalton Bookseller, we had at most 15,000 titles in stock. And that was at one of the largest B. Dalton’s in the country!
Tattered Cover started out as just another used bookstore in Denver. Joyce Meskis purchased the store in 1971 and successfully grew the business until it finally got so big, she was able to move into a four-story building located at 1st Avenue & Milwaukee Street in Cherry Creek 1986. This store was the Taj Mahal for bibliophiles in the Denver metro area.
Unfortunately, that behemoth known as Amazon began to kill off independent bookstores across the land. The rise of e-books also changed the bookselling landscape. And Tattered Cover had to adapt. Joyce Meskis downsized and moved the store to a location with a lower lease closer to the Capital.
Her declining health forced her to sell her beloved store in 2015. The new owners tried to revive Tattered Cover’s prospects by opening up three smaller stores along the Front Range. Apparently, this strategy didn’t work.
Sadly, the fate of The Tattered Cover is uncertain at this point.
Tattered Cover will close three locations, lay off workers as it files for bankruptcy – Denverite
