Review by Booklist Review
James Smithson is described as a minor mineralogist, the bastard son of the first duke of Northumberland, and a recluse. He also was the mysterious benefactor of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1829 he left his fortune (the equivalent of $50 million in today's currency), his\b library, and his mineral collection to establish the cultural institution. Burleigh, author of A Very Private Woman (1998), describes Smithson's unconventional life and the conflict in the U.S. after his death, for John Quincy Adams favored creating the institution,\b but\b John Calhoun led the fight against accepting the money from a foreigner. Joining the feud were states' rights advocates, nationalists, federalists, anglophiles, and xenophobes. Burleigh's research is extensive, and her storytelling ability is captivating. --George Cohen Copyright 2003 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Journalist Burleigh (A Very Private Woman) examines the mysterious life of James Smithson, the Englishman who left a $500,000 bequest that led to the founding of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithson, born in 1765, was the illegitimate son of the Duke of Northumberland, and Burleigh meticulously examines the legal and cultural restrictions placed on illegitimate sons in England. His mother was wealthy enough to put him through Oxford, where he studied geology, and in 1787, he became the youngest member of the prestigious Royal Society. He was fortunate in his choice of scientific mentors, too, having studied with intellectual giants such as James Hutton and Henry Cavendish. But Smithson, though a serious scientist, was a "not terribly original or brilliant" one, stresses Burleigh. After years of traveling across Europe, he died in 1829, leaving his estate to his nephew and orders that, if the nephew died without heirs (as he did), his estate would go to the United States (for reasons still unknown, as Smithson had no connection to America) for the purpose of creating an institution in Washington for diffusing knowledge. Surprisingly, as Burleigh relates, there were those in Congress who wanted no part of Smithson's bequest. Southern leaders, like John Calhoun and Jefferson Davis, who aimed to protect slavery by limiting the federal government's role, wanted to refuse the bequest. Those welcoming the gift were led by Congressman John Quincy Adams, who worked tirelessly to enact the legislation founding the Smithsonian Institution, which was finally passed in 1846. While Burleigh takes us on a diverting historical jaunt, there simply isn't enough factual information about his protagonist to make the story compelling. After 320 pages, James Smithson and his bequest remain shrouded in mystery. 8 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW. (Nov.) Forecast: Clearly, the title invokes The Professor and the Madman, but this book just doesn't have the appeal and substance of the bestseller it seeks to emulate. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Veteran journalist Burleigh (A Very Private Woman) presents the colorful yet relatively unknown story of James Smithson, the enigmatic English scientist who left his considerable estate to the United States, a country he never visited, to establish the Smithsonian. Smithson's donation, meant "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge," was nearly squandered in clashes (ably detailed here) among mid-1800 American states rights advocates, nationalists, federalists, anglophobes, and xenophobes. Beginning with Alexander Graham Bell's odd 1903 trip to Genoa to secure Smithson's remains, Burleigh's exhaustive research into numerous obscure archives continues with details of Smithson's little-known early life, his scientific contributions to the Royal Society, his two-year stint in prison during the Napoleonic Wars, and the fascinating story of his bequest. Because an 1865 fire destroyed most of Smithson's personal papers, researchers can only suggest the truth behind this lasting mystery, but Burleigh sheds light on Smithson's possible motivation. Told in a style reminiscent of Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman and Dava Sobel's Longitude, this superb history nicely updates Leonard Carmichael's and J.C. Long's James Smithson and the Smithsonian Story and provides more background than found in Geoffrey T. Hellman's The Smithsonian. Highly recommended for all academic and larger public libraries.-Dale Farris, Groves, TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Amassed from scant source material, this inescapably forced attempt to make something of the life of the Smithsonian Institution's founder underscores the peculiar nature of the institution's origins. Little is known of James Smithson's life--a state of affairs this account will not change--and he would not provoke much interest except for one grand gesture: He left to the US government, on his death in 1836, a sum of $500,000 "for the increase & diffusion of Knowledge among men." What makes this act so strange, writes Burleigh (A Very Private Woman, 1998), was that Smithson was an Englishman who never set foot in America. The bastard son of the Duke of Northumberland, though his mother also had a nice pot of her own gold, he led the life of a dilettante scientist; to call him even a minor 18th-century mineralogist would be generous. "Smithson's career was marginal, maybe even irrelevant as far as the great questions of his day," admits the author. Since her subject provides few handles, she fastens onto his parents, his social milieu, and his colleagues in the Royal Society to move the story along. Then comes his bequest, which Burleigh suggests was the product either of his desire to make a name for himself or, more charitably, "to bring scientific knowledge to the masses," both certainly plausible speculations. When the money makes it to the US Treasury, the author can finally sink her teeth into events, following the financial shenanigans through which the entire bequest was swindled and the efforts of John Quincy Adams to have the money put to its intended use. The dabbling Smithson isn't much of a rudder for a biography, and authorial enthusiasm never overcomes the handicap. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
