January 10, 2007
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Literary and Historical Notes (From The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Kellor):
It's the birthday of historian Stephen E. Ambrose, (books by this
author) born in Decatur, Illinois (1936). He was 28 years old when a small university press published his first book, Halleck: Lincoln's Chief of Staff
(1962), a biography of General Henry Halleck. Only a few thousand
copies of the biography were printed, and Ambrose assumed that it
had only been read by the academic community. But one day, he got a
phone call from the former president, Dwight Eisenhower, who had read
his book on Halleck and liked it so much that he wanted Ambrose to be
his own biographer.Ambrose wrote several books about Eisenhower, including The Supreme Commander (1970) and Eisenhower: The President
(1984), and those books helped him make the leap from academic to
popular historian. He went on to write many best-selling books about
American
history, including Band of Brothers (1992) and D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II (1994).Stephen Ambrose believed that he became a successful historian
because he got so much practice telling stories to his students. He
said, "There is nothing like standing before 50 students at 8 a.m. to
start talking about an event that occurred 100 years ago, because the
look on
their faces is a challenge — 'Let's see you keep me awake.' You learn
what works and what doesn't in a hurry."It was on this day in 1776 that a 77-page pamphlet called "Common Sense" was published anonymously,
making the case that the American colonies should declare independence
from Great Britain. It had been written by a man named Thomas Paine.
The pamphlet sold more
than 500,000 copies, more copies than any other publication had ever
sold at that time in America.Adams would always be somewhat jealous of the attention "Common
Sense" received, but even he had to admit that it was "Common Sense,"
more than anything else, that had persuaded most ordinary Americans to
support independence. Adams said, "Without the pen of the author of
'Common
Sense,' the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain."
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