Charles Sumner

I'm reading Zaakir Tameez's new biography of Charles Sumner. I definitely recommend it. For years I had David Herbert Donald's terrible biography on my office shelf. Why did I keep a terrible book? Because it was the only Sumner biography and sometimes you just need to cite such a source. But I'm glad I don't have to now.

In fairness, you could say that every biography is terrible after 50 years because of changing perspectives and new research. I would love to update my Bingham book with a second (longer) edition, for example, but I doubt my publisher will ever be interested. Someone else will eventually write a better one.