Beecher

Publisher: E.P. Dutton, New York

Inside Jacket

When asked, “Who is the American of our time?” Abraham Lincoln said, “Beecher.” Henry Ward Beecher, golden-tongued pastor of Brooklyn’s Plymouth Church, whose sermons made the multitudes gasp and swoon, was a celebrated public figure and peerless moral force. Thus the nation was flabbergasted when the eminent Beecher was accused of seducing the wife of his protégé.

This spirited, highly original novel re-creates the tumult of the Beecher trial, bringing on a marvelous cast of characters. First and foremost is Beecher himself, staunch abolitionist and early supporter of the feminist movement, outrageous in his own defense, sniffing violets and dropping them to the floor at telling moments….

Praise

“McCall lets rip with a reconstruction of some of the most gorgeous, meaty, [and] elaborate language—Beecher’s—that you can imagine. Caught beautifully are the legal, sexual, and political overtones of the period; but this is mostly a book of rhetoric, thunderous and sweet… with ripples of language that are truly inspired. Good historical fiction—but, beyond that, evidence of a suppleness with words that McCall’s readers have known about since his first book.” --Kirkus Reviews

"An amazing novel." -- Alison Lurie

“A dazzling tour de force of language, action and perspective.”

– The Plain Dealer

Excerpt - Opening Page

The first thing this roughneck preacher from out there in Indianapolis did, when he answered the call to Brooklyn’s Plymouth Church, was remove the pulpit. And install a throne.

The great Congregational edifice goes straightaway through from Orange to Pineapple (the very street names testifying to the pastor’s mania for horticulture). In the massive central sanctuary, one hundred five feet by eighty feet, the pews are arranged in a vast semi-circle, with plush red velvet cushions, two thousand one hundred places—and another one thousand in chairs, benches, gallery, and standing room—all centering on his throne. He extended a platform, a kind of runway out into the semi-circle; he said, “It is perfect—because it is built on a principle—the principle of social and personal magnetism, emanating reciprocally.” Henry Ward Beecher—my big brother, my half-brother—talks that way.