For the casual reader, this book clearly brings color and charm to the generic, impassive marble statue of Washington that is most widely recognized. Whether Ellis added new depth or dimension to Washington’s character depends on your perspective. On that point, I agree whole-heartedly. For someone unfamiliar with Washington’s life (or for whom the passage of time has rendered high school American history a faded blur) this biography will, in the shortest reasonable time, well-familiarize the reader with Washington’s life and reinforce the dramatic impact he had on his emerging nation.Įllis admitted in the earliest pages of the book that he didn’t intend to compete with authors before him who produced multi-volume tomes but, instead, wanted to paint a “fresh portrait focused tightly on Washington’s character.” While he was successful in avoiding a head-to-head challenge on the first point, I’m not so certain he fully met his objective on the second. Reviews of Ellis’ book ubiquitously applaud the biography as an excellent introduction to Washington and a terrific primer for the casual reader who may not be interested in a doctoral-level dissection of the man. Having read “His Excellency: George Washington” so soon after completing Flexner’s more thorough series on Washington may have disadvantaged my ability to consider Ellis’ work entirely free of external influences, but also provided me a more enlightened frame of reference within which to absorb, enjoy and evaluate Ellis’ biography (and the others on Washington yet to come). But since quality and quantity are often unrelated, my expectations for the book were not the least bit diminished by its relative brevity. Whether or not coincidental, it is also by a fair stretch the shortest book of the group. He is perhaps best known for his Pulitzer Prize winning book “Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation” and has written about Presidents Adams and Jefferson as well.Īmong the nine biographies of George Washington currently in my library (counting each of Flexner’s volumes individually), Ellis’ biography on Washington has been much more widely reviewed, and presumably read, than any of the others. Ellis is a well-known author and history professor focusing on the revolutionary era. Ellis’ bestselling biography of our first President, published nearly a decade ago. “ His Excellency: George Washington” is Joseph J.
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