NF American Queen

[Northern Light]

American Queen: The Rise and Fall of Kate Chase Sprague--Civil War "Belle of the North" and Gilded Age Woman of Scandal Hardcover – October 28, 2014
by John Oller (Author)
Had People magazine been around during the Civil War and after, Kate Chase would have made its "Most Beautiful" and "Most Intriguing" lists every year. The charismatic daughter of Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln's treasury secretary, Kate Chase enjoyed unprecedented political power for a woman. As her widowed father's hostess, she set up a rival "court" against Mary Lincoln in hopes of making her father president and herself his First Lady. To facilitate that goal, she married one of the richest men in the country, the handsome "boy governor" of Rhode Island, in the social event of the Civil War. She moved easily between the worlds of high fashion, adorning herself in the most regal Parisian gowns, and politics, managing her father's presidential campaigns. "No Queen has ever reigned under the Stars and Stripes," one newspaper would write, "but this remarkable woman came closer to being a Queen than any American woman has."

But when William Sprague turned out to be less of a prince as a husband, Kate found comfort in the arms of a powerful married senator. The ensuing sex scandal ended her virtual royalty; after the marriage crumbled and the money disappeared, she was left only with her children and her ever-proud bearing. She became a social outcast and died in poverty, yet in her final years she would find both greater authenticity and the inner peace that had always eluded her.

Kate Chase's dramatic story is one of ambition and tragedy, set against the seductive allure of the Civil War and Gilded Age, involving some of the most famous personalities in American history. In this beautifully written and meticulously researched biography, drawing on much unpublished material, John Oller captures the extraordinary life of a woman who was a century ahead of her time.
(From Amazon)

Has any one read this?

 

[Gencor]

I did read it. Didn't like it. The author is a lawyer who tried and convicted Kate of adultery with flimsy circumstantial evidence. I read this book twice. I have read just about everything out there available regarding this subject and this book is very much like all of the others. Oller took the time to do alot of research and even went so far as to make contact with her descendants but even with all of this effort, he didn't get his subject at all. The book was filled in the first half with stories of Salmon Chase and the politics of that time but Kate was always written in connection with all of this and not as an individual. Most of the second half of the book was filled with opinionated judgements of Kate and the same old stuff that every other author has written over and over again. Most of the books about Kate are more about William Sprague and Salmon Chase than they are about Kate because basically they all tell the same old story. None of them made the effort to understand this woman and who she really was. Oller didn't either. There is a Kate Chase story waiting to be told but this one wasn't it.

Oller didn't like the fact that I changed my opinion about his book, after I had read it twice and took to the boards stalking me and telling people that I had posted rave reviews about his book, even though one was removed, he tried to continue posting it, calling me out, accusing me of mood swings. That wasn't it at all. I just didn't like the book after I read it again. I found that it really didn't present anything new and I didn't like the fact that he tried to change history on nothing more than a broach and a bracelet. Kate was accused of an affair with Conkling by her narcissistic, bi-polar, alcoholic husband who had a drunken, jealous nervous breakdown with a shotgun in the town square of Narraganset Pier. While there may have been whispers about Kate and Conkling, there was never any proof and even after Sprague went off on them publicly and in a most explosive and exploitive attempt to ruin them both, the entire incident took on a life of its own and became a huge american scandal. Never, to this day, has there ever been any proof at all that these two people were ever having an affair. The high point and the only chapter that even comes close to telling the story of the personal will and strength of Kate Chase is in her escape from Canonchet with her little girls, from the confined prison like atmosphere that Sprague had forced upon her.

My favorite book and the only one that I still believe comes the closest to telling Kate's story is the one written by Sokoloff entitled "Kate Chase for the Defense." We get a real glimpse at her feelings through her diaries, that her great granddaughter released some years ago to Brown university and through these diaries we are able to learn some of the real truth of this most remarkable woman.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

I do know women were and are much more easily ' ruined ' through scandal than men, no idea why- exception being politics these days. You do get tired of bios where authors make suppositions, frequently not complimentary, on what the subject's motivations were based on what the author thought, not necessarily having read anyone's mind. I gave up a bio on Chamberlain 3/4's through for the same reason- it was all " Chamberlain did xyz because he was psychologically driven to this through the xyz from his xyz. " Now how on earth does anyone know that?

Kate's grgranddaughter did History and her grgrandmother a huge service in my opinion, whether intended or not, leaving her writings somewhere safe and accessible. In the end the only person who can speak for Kate is Kate and it would be a huge pity if she is disallowed this dignity.

 

[Gencor]

I do know women were and are much more easily ' ruined ' through scandal than men, no idea why- exception being politics these days. You do get tired of bios where authors make suppositions, frequently not complimentary, on what the subject's motivations were based on what the author thought, not necessarily having read anyone's mind. I gave up a bio on Chamberlain 3/4's through for the same reason- it was all " Chamberlain did xyz because he was psychologically driven to this through the xyz from his xyz. " Now how on earth does anyone know that?

Kate's grgranddaughter did History and her grgrandmother a huge service in my opinion, whether intended or not, leaving her writings somewhere safe and accessible. In the end the only person who can speak for Kate is Kate and it would be a huge pity if she is disallowed this dignity.

I agree.

 

[nycauthor]

I'll just let Gencor's original review speak for itself:

Subject: Your wonderful new book, "American Queen: The Rise and Fall of Kate Chase"

Message: Hello, John. I am from Baton Rouge, Louisiana and I have been waiting for your book to be released all summer! I have finally gotten to read it and I just had to let you know how wonderful it is. Finally! Someone is telling Kate's real story and not the same repetitive stuff that has been copied over and over again down through the last hundred years! It is time for the world to know the real Kate Chase and what a remarkable woman she really was. What a true inspiration she is for all women. The work that you put into this book, the way that you went deeper and exposed the heart and soul of her was so impressive. To work through and get past the horrible press coverage and the tabloid sensation that was made of this woman, without going deep enough to ever know what she suffered in her marriage to such a sick and pathetic man. You brought her to life, John and for that I am very grateful. You told the story in the way that explained her unique ambition and her intelligence without making her sound like a woman who was crazed for power. The history of this woman has always been unkind and I believe, terribly unfair. I am just so happy that now the true story of this woman is being told.