Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow Review

Ron Chernow receiveda Pulitzer Prize for his cradle-to-grave chronicle of the Father of the United States of America, George Washington. He has also written lauded biographies on Washington's confidant and fellow Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton, Civil-War General and 19th U.S President Ulysses S. Grant; and most recently, famed American novelist Mark Twain, who Grant knew well.

For many seeking biographies of one of America's most important - if not the most important - figure in U.S history, one may balk at the expanse of biographies seeking to do justice to the awe-inspiring life that George Washington led. And by practically every measure, he very much did lead it. A 2019 count revealed that approximately 900 different accounts of Washington's life are available and in circulation. This jumps to thousands when one takes into account the many scholarly articles covering the Revolutionary hero's life.

So Chernow was certainly up against stiff competition, even back in 2010 when this tome was released.

Although I hadn't previously read extensively on Washington's life, with Chernow's account, it would seem that such competition has been all but done away with. For in Washington: A Life, Chernow's renown as both a story-teller and scrupulous researcher becomes patently clear within the first few pages.

We open to a prologue to introduce our subject: the tale of Gilbert Stuart's painting of the president in 1793. Within this short, succinct, yet undeniably revealing prelude to the just-over 800 page biography, we learn an awful lot: Washington's private character, his esteemed manner and countenance and the shortcomings of other George Washington biographies that, in Chernow's words, "have sanded down the rough edges of his personality and made him difficult to grasp." In the following pages, Chernow's pledge: "to create a fresh portrait of Washington that will make him real, credible, and charismatic in the same way that he was by his contemporaries", becomes satisfyingly and wholeheartedly fulfilled.

Where most biographers would shrivel at the prospect of painting such a clear picture of Washington in readers' minds, Chernow succeeds by magisterially bringing to the foreground what would usually be left in the background. Such as, Washington's treatment of his slaves, who upon his death would be freed (the only Founding Father to do so), his stern approach to dealing with unruly fellow soldiers in camps during the Revolutionary War, his legendary ability to be, somehow providentially, averse to bullets firing his way, his injurious financial woes and mishaps that bedevilled him right up until his demise, and so on. Such vignettes are able to be masterfully crafted in such a way that are not only incredibly revealing, but profoundly captivating. Chernow's pen, like his subject, is remarkable.

It's this blend that makes this account so gratifying to read through. Often, biographies will slip into one of two categories: Rigorous research coupled with uninspiring prose, or, vice-versa. This is where Chernow's account becomes a true exception; one marvels throughout the book at some of the sentences he's able to craft.

In Washington: A Life, readers seeking a single-volume account of America's first president should look no further. Although the 800 pages will naturally repel readers, I would encourage them to peruse just the contents of the first few pages; I guarantee most will find it hard to put down. It is obvious why this was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.