You don’t have to be a fan of the American Revolution to enjoy “The Ride: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America” (St. Martin’s Press, 287 pgs., $29 hardback), but it might help.
Kostya Kennedy, known for his several bestselling sports books, has put together such a good narrative that the saga reads like a well-developed tale. However, it is, on every page, a nonfiction historical saga — maybe the best known to children of any Revolutionary-era story.
Acclaim needs to go to Kennedy for giving Revere’s famous ride a fresh gallop, especially on the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolution.
While Revere was central to the night’s equine near-madness, Kennedy points out the significance accomplices, William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott, who in their own ways called militiamen around Boston to arms against the British redcoats who were traveling to outlying areas seeking patriot munitions — and to quash any proposed revolt.
Even though July 4, 1776, and its Declaration of Independence bring out the red, white and blue bunting, the bells ringing and the fireworks flashing, it was Revere and his remarkable midnight ride on April 18, 1775, that set everything in motion.
“The patriots would not have held Concord (and attacked the British at Lexington) without Revere and his fellow riders having sounded the alarm throughout the countryside,” the Boston Globe said in its book review. “The impact of the mission’s success is implicit. Revere skillfully rose to the moment by putting an ideal and a people ahead of himself (as of course did the thousands of rebels who turned out to fight).”
Kennedy stressed that it was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s historical poem that cemented the silversmith, engraver and anti-British operative into the lore of Americana.
With Longfellow’s prose and the image of Revere on his steed racing across the country, this one night’s act stays in the consciousness of children and adults alike. It is an image of resourcefulness and willingness to pay the needed price for success and victory.
Kennedy’s research, including new primary and secondary sources, has gone a long way to reveal the complex nature of the night’s actions. Family letters, diaries and contemporary accounts provide a litany of efforts by many people, including the man in the steeple of the Old North Church waving his lantern, to ensure the ride’s success.
He makes a case for Dr. Joseph Warren, a friend of Revere and one of the rebel leaders, to be among the nation’s Founding Fathers even though he died at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775. Kennedy also suggests that Margaret Kemble Gage, the American-born wife of British Gen. Thomas Gage, may have been instrumental in passing information to her minutemen patriot friends ahead of the British march to Concord.
One of the most memorable items of new information about Revere is the fact that he was an express rider who made more than a dozen trips from Boston’s patriots to various other organizations such as the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. These round-trips kept leaders in Massachusetts such as John Hancock and Samuel Adams informed regarding activities elsewhere.
Kennedy wrote that Revere was “the best express rider the Patriots ever had.” The fateful night with all its opportunities for failure “might have been enough to cause even the most talented express ridge to falter. Revere thrived.”
This volume brings some new truths to the Revere story. Read and enjoy!
A good Sherlock Holmes yarn
Across the room from where I write these columns stand two tall bookcases containing books about Sherlock Holmes and memorabilia such as mugs, statues and bookends. Obviously, I’m a Sherlock Holmes fan.
Among the books are the names of three important authors, in addition to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote the Sherlock Holmes canon: Michael Harrison, the Holmes historian; author Anthony Horowitz, another Holmes aficionado and creator of British television series “Foyle’s War” and adaptor of “Midsomer Murders;” and Nicholas Meyer, whose volume, “The Seven-Per-Cent Solution,” written 50 years ago, was on The New York Times bestseller list for 40 weeks.
Recently, I was ambling through a local bookstore and Meyer‘s name caught my eye. It was another volume about the great British fictional detective Holmes and his companion and biographer Dr. John H. Watson.
“Sherlock Holmes and the Real Thing” (Mysterious Press, 264 pgs., $26.95 hardback) was “edited” by Meyer, who writes that this is his last Holmes saga. If that be the case, grab it because it’s a gem, a sparkling diamond. Less than 30 hours after my purchase, I completed it, hardly able to put it down.
Meyer writes like Doyle. Holmes and Watson react like Doyle would have them react. From start to finish Meyer’s story — aka Doyle’s story — is about the world of art forgery. However, it begins with an unusual request for Holmes: a landlady is concerned about a tenant behind on rent. Those of us Holmes fans know instantly that this is not a problem that would be of interest to the consulting detective. But he is bored with nothing to do.
So, he jumps into the missing tenant with zeal and soon there are several dead bodies and possible art fakes.
As an aside, Watson, who tells all the Holmes stories, becomes infatuated with Juliet Packwood, who knows some of the ins and outs of the art business.
Generations of Holmes’ readers will be thankful for Meyer’s efforts.
Dreamers on the Outer Banks
Beginning more than 60 years ago, it was said more Virginians visited the Outer Banks than North Carolinians. In fact, during the summers, the Richmond Times-Dispatch delivered its daily newspaper to stands throughout the lengthy coastal region.
Clark Twiddy, raised in Duck and who heads an asset management and hospitality firm established along the Outer Banks in 1978, has written “Outer Banks Visionaries: Building North Carolina’s Oceanfront” (The History Press, 130 pgs., $23.99 paperback).
This is a story of business and real estate and how a handful of folks, including the Outer Banks political leader Marc Basnight, turned dreams into realities that gradually became known across the nation.
Two men, David Stick and Aycock Brown, don’t fit Twiddy’s mold because they were history- and PR-focused. Nevertheless, they were visionaries and successful promoters and, frankly, ahead of their time.
Stick wrote the book (at least a half dozen volumes) on Outer Banks history, beginning with “Graveyard of the Atlantic” in 1952 — opening the door to thousands of mostly summertime visitors.
Brown was a crafty publicity sleuth whose photography, like Stick’s books, attracted thousands of curious, sun-seeking tourists from across the nation. For example, Brown could take a photo of a statuesque beauty with a large channel bass caught near Hatteras Inlet and get it in major newspapers, such as The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times.
Twiddy explains that development of the Outer Banks as we know it began in the 1980s and through the years became a polished resort area and not just scattered beach houses, where scenes of dunes and the ocean brought visitors to relax.
This volume tells a different side of the Outer Banks that has brought thousands of new visitors and homeowners to the land of “The Lost Colony” and the Wright brothers’ airplane flights.
Have a comment or suggestion for Kale? Contact him at Kalehouse@aol.com.
