The American Chronicle 1 - Burr

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Authors: Gore Vidal

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Praise for

GORE VIDAL

and

BURR

 

“OUR GREATEST LIVING MAN OF LETTERS.”

George Frazier

The Boston Globe

 

“Here we have Burr’s story—a tragedy, a comedy, a vibrant, leg-kicking life ... All of this and much, much more is told in a highly engaging book that teems with bons mots, aphorisms and ironic comments on the political process ... Enlightening, fresh and fun.”

Margaret Manning

The Boston Globe

 

“AN EXTRAORDINARILY

INTELLIGENT AND

ENTERTAINING NOVEL!”

Peter S. Prescott

Newsweek

 

“
Burr
is wicked entertainment of a very high order ... There aren’t many writers around today who can put together sentences as craftily as Gore Vidal, who promise a story and deliver it as well, for whom wit is not a mechanical toy that explodes in the face of the reader but a feather that tickles the bare feet of the imagination. Not to read
Burr
is to cheat yourself of considerable charm, intelligence and provocation!”

George Dangerfield

The New York Times Book Review

 

“A subtle, sometimes satirical, often brilliant recreation of the political ferment which surrounded the republic in its infancy.”

John Barkham Reviews

 

“IS THERE ANY AMERICAN

ANYWHERE MORE WORLDLY

THAN GORE VIDAL?”

Stephen Koch

Saturday Review

 

“Stendahlian ... It is probably impossible to be an American and not be fascinated and impressed by Vidal’s suave telescoping of our early history ... Dazzling ... Always absorbing.”

The New Yorker

 

“Like a bruised apple, Burr has long lain ready for peeling, and what a fascinating book Vidal has made of him!”

Edward Weeks

Atlantic Monthly

Novels by Gore Vidal

 

WILLIWAW

THE CITY AND THE PILLAR

A SEARCH FOR THE KING

DARK GREEN, BRIGHT RED

THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS

MESSIAH

MYRA BRECKINRIDGE

TWO SISTERS

MYRON

KALKI

DULUTH

 

The Classical Novels:

JULIAN

CREATION

 

The American Chronicle Novels:

BURR

LINCOLN

1876

EMPIRE

HOLLYWOOD

WASHINGTON, D.C.

 

 

 

Books published by The Ballantine Publishing Group are available at quantity discounts on bulk purchases for premium, educational, fund-raising, and special sales use. For details, please call 1-800-733-3000.

 

BURR

 

Gore Vidal

 

 

 

BALLANTINE BOOKS • NEW YORK

 

Sale of this book without a front cover may be unauthorized. If this book is coverless, it may have been reported to the publisher as “unsold or destroyed” and neither the author nor the publisher may have received payment for it.

 

Copyright © 1973 by Gore Vidal

 

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

 

http://www.randomhouse.com

 

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 73-3985

 

ISBN 0-345-33921-5

 

This edition published by arrangement with Random House, Inc.

 

Manufactured in the United States of America

 

First Ballantine Books Edition: September 1982

 

20 19 18 17 16

 

FOR MY NEPHEWS

Ivan
,
Hugh and Burr

Contents

Contents
.
2

1833
.
2

One
.
2

Two
.
2

Three
.
2

Four
2

Five
.
2

Six
.
2

Seven
.
2

Eight
2

Nine
.
2

Ten
.
2

Eleven
.
2

Twelve
.
2

1834
.
2

One
.
2

Two
.
2

Three
.
2

Four
2

Five
.
2

Six
.
2

Seven
.
2

Eight
2

Nine
.
2

Ten
.
2

Eleven
.
2

Twelve
.
2

Thirteen
.
2

Fourteen
.
2

Fifteen
.
2

Sixteen
.
2

Seventeen
.
2

Eighteen
.
2

Nineteen
.
2

Twenty
.
2

Twenty-one
.
2

Twenty-two
.
2

Twenty-three
.
2

Twenty-four
2

Twenty-Five
.
2

Twenty-six
.
2

Twenty-seven
.
2

Twenty-eight
2

Twenty-nine
.
2

Thirty
.
2

Thirty-one
.
2

Thirty-two
.
2

Thirty-three
.
2

Thirty-four
2

Thirty-five
.
2

Thirty-six
.
2

1835
.
2

One
.
2

Two
.
2

Three
.
2

Four
2

Five
.
2

Six
.
2

Seven
.
2

Eight
2

Nine
.
2

Ten
.
2

Eleven
.
2

Twelve
.
2

Thirteen
.
2

Fourteen
.
2

Fifteen
.
2

1836
.
2

One
.
2

Two
.
2

Three
.
2

Four
2

Five
.
2

Six
.
2

Seven
.
2

Eight
2

Nine
.
2

Ten
.
2

Eleven
.
2

1840
.
2

Afterword
.
2

About The Author
2

 

 

BURR

1833
One

A Special Despatch to the New York
Evening Post
:

 

SHORTLY BEFORE MIDNIGHT, July 1, 1833, Colonel Aaron Burr, aged seventy-seven, married Eliza Jumel, born Bowen fifty-eight years ago (more likely sixty-five but remember: she is prone to litigation!). The ceremony took place at Madame Jumel’s mansion on the Washington Heights and was performed by Doctor Bogart (will supply first name later). In attendance were Madame Jumel’s niece (some say daughter) and her husband Nelson Chase, a lawyer from Colonel Burr’s Reade Street firm. This was the Colonel’s second marriage; a half-century ago he married Theodosia Prevost.

In 1804 Colonel Burr—then vice-president of the United States—shot and killed General Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Three years after this lamentable affair, Colonel Burr was arrested by order of President Thomas Jefferson and charged with treason for having wanted to break up the United States. A court presided over by Chief Justice John Marshall found Colonel Burr innocent of treason but guilty of the misdemeanour of proposing an invasion of Spanish territory in order to make himself emperor of Mexico.

The new Mrs. Aaron Burr is the widow of the wine merchant Stephen Jumel; reputedly, she is the richest woman in New York City, having begun her days humbly but no doubt cheerfully in a brothel at Providence, Rhode Island. ...

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