Biographies


C. C. Burlingham, His Life and Century
1858-1959 New York's First Citizen

This book was "published by Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar,
Straus & Giroux, and was awarded the Erwin N. Griswold Prize by the Supreme Court Historical Society. It recounts the life of a man of great influence, but little power. He was a friend, however, and counselor to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Fiorello La Guardia, and when he telephoned, they took the call. He was not rich, but supported himself by practicing maritime law, in which field his most famous case was representing the White Star Line against claims for loss of life and property in the sinking of the Titanic. He had much to do with the shape and architecture of New York City, especially bridges in and out of Manhattan. In addition, members of his family suffered with mental ill health, and his daughter in law became a disciple of Anna Freud, involving him indirectly, and one time most directly, with the Freuds, father and daughter. He was also a man of religious belief and helped to make St. George's Episcopal Church in New York City one of the city's outstanding churches, especially in its dealings with immigrants to the city. He was a great meddler in politics and started the judicial careers of two great judges: Benjamin N. Cardozo and Learned Hand. He wrote letters with a breezy charm and so his letters were saved. His life and century are an interesting, amusing part of the country's history.

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Madam Secretary, Frances Perkins
(Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1976)
ISBN 0-395-24293-2


Perkins, America's First Woman Cabinet Member, was U.S. Secretary of Labor for Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945, and the "mother" of Social Security. Few cabinet officers, after leaving office, have had as such a continuing influence on our lives as she.

Her career, for her day was quite extraordinary, and in the 1930s, before World War II launched Eleanor Roosevelt to world-wide fame, many in the United States considered Perkins the country's outstanding woman. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College, married, had a daughter, worked for the New York State labor department and with Governor Al Smith's backing worked under her maiden name. When she was sworn in as U. S. Secretary of Labor under the name "Miss Perkins," with a sixteen-year old daughter at her side, conservative Congressmen sputtered. But she was the best qualified candidate for the job, and the in-coming President, F. D. R., trusted her. She was strong in her religious beliefs, and because a woman and religious, male historians tend to brush her aside, apparently uncomfortable with her gender and religion and uncertain how to gauge or handle her influence. Her part in the country's social security system is still not sufficiently celebrated.

The book is now out of print, but available in second-hand copies through book stores.



The Damrosch Dynasty, America's First Family of Music
(Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1983)
ISBN 0-395-34408-5


This is a book about a family of German immigrant musicians, with emphasis on the family's social characteristics, the attitudes and assumptions underlying its personal relations and its extraordinary contribution to music in the United States. Indeed, no family has contributed more to the development in this country of a taste for classical music than the Damrosch-Mannes family. What they accomplished, founding musical institutions such as the Institute of Musical Art (later the Juilliard School), the Mannes College of Music, the NBC Music Appreciation Hour, the New York Symphony and the Oratorio Society of New York, is certain. Why they accomplished so much is more speculative, and the book probes their German and religious backgrounds, their experiences with New York's rich, such as persuading Andrew Carnegie to build Carnegie Hall, and with the poor and ordinary, such as the People's Singing Classes.

They did not limit themselves to music, however, they also had a role in science, for Leopold Damrosch Mannes, a first-class musician, was also a co-inventor with another musician of the first practical process for color photography. His wife, Evelyn Sabin, was one of Martha Graham's dancers in the latter's first troupe, the Graham Trio. His sister, Marya Mannes, wrote books and articles on social, political, and artistic concerns. A cousin, Helen Tee Van, painted murals for New York's Museum of Natural History, while her husband went to China to bring back a giant baby panda for the Bronx Zoo. All in all, the explosion of talent in the family's first three generations was extraordinary, and the book explores the reasons for it.

The book is now out of print, but available in second-hand copies through book stores.



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