Two Biographies

Not that I don't already have enough biographies to read, but there are two on the horizon which have me salivating: Walter Isaacson's Einstein and Jean Edward Smith's FDR. Here is the blurb for Isaacson's latest:

How did his mind work? What made him a genius? Isaacson's biography shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. His fascinating story is a testament to the connection between creativity and freedom.

Based on newly released personal letters of Einstein, this book explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk -- a struggling father in a difficult marriage who couldn't get a teaching job or a doctorate -- became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos, the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom and the universe. His success came from questioning conventional wisdom and marveling at mysteries that struck others as mundane. This led him to embrace a morality and politics based on respect for free minds, free spirits, and free individuals.

Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin was quite good. Not as sophisticated as the treatments by Edmund Morgan and Gordon Wood, not as thorough as that by H.W. Brands, but a stellar introduction to the founding grandfather. Einstein deserves the same and I look forward to this book. As for the FDR blurb:

Summing up Roosevelt's legacy, Jean Smith declares that FDR, more than any other individual, changed the relationship between the American people and their government. It was Roosevelt who revolutionized the art of campaigning and used the burgeoning mass media to garner public support and allay fears. But more important, Smith gives us the clearest picture yet of how this quintessential Knickerbocker aristocrat, a man who never had to depend on a paycheck, became the common man's president. The result is a powerful account that adds fresh perspectives and draws profound conclusions about a man whose story is widely known but far less well understood. Written for the general reader and scholars alike, FDR is a stunning biography in every way worthy of its subject.

I have not read Smith's John Marshall or Grant, so I do not know whether to expect much. I have been a bit hesistant to read Conrad Black's FDR, though it got great reviews and currently sits on my shelf. Considering Black's current criminal trial, it seems distasteful to read a book on such a great man by an alleged thief. But perhaps it takes one flawed giant to know another (Black's next book, after all, is supposed to be about Nixon). In any case, I'm hopeful that Smith's one-volume is at least servicable. We shall see.

(Hat tip: The Millions)