John C. Frémont: Pathfinder, Provocateur and Presidential Candidate

John C. Frémont, the Pathfinder, was a bright mathematician and cartographer, a persistent and courageous adventurer, a quixotic man with more ups and downs in a lifetime than the New York Stock Exchange suffers in a year. He was also stubborn - stirring a whirlwind of passion and controversy with his contemporaries and, since his death in 1890, with historians and biographers. Undoubtedly talented, and with his marriage to Sen. Thomas Hart Benton's daughter Jessie, politically well connected, Frémont was the flint that ignited California's Bear Flag Revolt. But his actions were controversial and in the process he developed more enemies than friends. In his roller coaster life Frémont suffered through a nationally publicized court martial, gained promotion to major general before being forced to leave the Army and ended up as governor of the Arizona Territory working with Barry Goldwater's grandfather. He was California's first Senator and the Republican Party's first presidential candidate; yet he seemed to always fall just short of success. Author Daniel Alef tells the story of a man driven by ambition and talent who faltered and stumbled as much by tactlessness and arrogance as by circumstance. Yet his impact on history is unimpeachable and his biographical profile a fascinating tale of an American legend. [1,398-word Titans of Fortune article]