Marse Henry: An Autobiography (volume 2)

Henry Watterson was called 'Marse Henry' by the people of Kentucky, and this memoir captures why no one who met him ever forgot him. Volume two of his autobiography follows this flamboyant journalist-turned-congressman through the corridors of power in the Gilded Age, where he rubbed elbows with abolitionist Charles Sumner and German-American statesman Carl Schurz, among the era's most commanding figures. But what makes this memoir crackle is not merely the famous faces Watterson encountered; it is his ferociously honest account of his own reluctance to seek office, his boisterous early days in Congress, and a legendary all-night session of revelry and mischief that would make any modern politician blush. Watterson writes with the same purple prose and sharp elbows that made him Louisville's most influential newspaper voice. For anyone hungry for an unfiltered glimpse into late 19th century American politics, where idealism and corruption twisted together like kudzu, this memoir is pure spoils.