Edward Augustus Brackett: The Life, Art and Tumultuous Times of an American Original

The first comprehensive biography of the 19th century polymath Edward Augustus Brackett, a Boston based artist, abolitionist, spiritualist, poet and conservationist. Because of his involvement with figures like John Brown, Edmonia Lewis, William James, William Cullen Bryan, Alfred Russel Wallace and William Lloyd Garrison, this biography is also a social history of the conflict torn 19^th century America. Its author, Eleanor Heartney, is a prominent commentator on contemporary art who is also Brackett's great great granddaughter. Using publicly available material and Brackett family archives she has reconstructed his life in a lively narrative that explores the momentous events in which he participated, the fascinating cast of characters with whom he came in contact and the strikingly contemporary aspects of his experiences with his century's civil and racial strife, threats to democracy, looming environmental disasters and widespread yearning for social and spiritual renewal.