The American Leonardo: A Life of Samuel F. B. Morse

Morse, the artist and telegraph inventor of New York City and Pougheepsie, is no easy subject. Nicolai Cikovsky Jr., Curator of American Painting at the National Gallery, observes in a new introduction that the difficulty arises because of "the virtually irreconcilable complexities and contradictions of his character, his mind, and his achievments. It is echoed by the New York Times Book Review which praised the author for whitewashing nothing: "It is a very human Morse that emerges from Mr. Mabee's pages." Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.