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The Significance. No masterful biography, like Strachey's Queen Victoria, or even Bradford's P. T. Barnum, this Aaron Burr is yet a striking story, because of Burr's strange life, because of his extraordinary abilities and shortcomings. It is calculated to upset a great many preconceived ideas, to overturn the century-old story of the "villain Burr,," It throws new light on the characters and careers of Hamilton and Jefferson—not enviable light. Numbers of unpublished letters and manuscripts are produced which all but make Burr shine as a gentleman, as a politician. Some of the usual reflections upon Burr are disproved, others are left in doubt—a doubt increased by Burr's own unwillingness to stoop to answering defamers during his lifetime. Aside from his terrible irresponsibility with money, his ex- travagant schemes (the biographers suggest that he was not completely sound of mind in later years— there was insanity in his family) the record of Burr's known acts is decidedly in his favor.
The Authors. Meade Minnigerode has been known for some time as a popular biographer. In this book, he was called to the aid of Samuel H. Wandell, who did the laborious work of gathering the deeply buried story of Burr. A scholar may spoil his case by dullness, but he does not always improve it by calling in . literary aides. One has the conviction that Mr. Wandell did his work a great deal better than Mr. Minnigerode, for the story of Aaron Burr rises imperishably above its treatment.
* AARON BURR—Samuel H. Wandell and Meade Minnigerode—Putnam. 2 Vola. ($10).