Books: The Difficult Hero

JOHN PAUL JONES (453 pp.)-Samuel Eliot Morison-Little, Brown ($6.50).

He was an unlikely sort of hero, a brownish-haired little (about 5 ft. 5 in.) Scot with a murderous temper, the boudoir morals of a tomcat, and a colossal ego. He toadied to his superiors, fought with his peers, and would never give credit to his juniors when he could claim it for himself. He fancied himself as a freedom-loving "citizen of the world," yet ended up drawing his sword for a despot. But John Paul Jones could certainly do one thing: he could fight a...

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