Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters

by Elizabeth Brown Pryor

Book Overview

For the 200th anniversary of Robert E. Lee?s birth, a new portrait drawing on previously unpublished correspondence Robert E. Lee?s war correspondence is well known, and here and there personal letters have found their way into print, but the great majority of his most intimate messages have never been made public. These letters reveal a far more complex and contradictory man than the one who comes most readily to the imagination, for it is with his...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670038296
• ISBN13: 9780670038299
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 658 Pages
• Weight: 2.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.1" x 6.6" x 9.5"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Revolutionary and vital. Absolutely indispensable.

I have been a park ranger at Arlington House, The Robert E. Memorial for 17 years now and I can honestly say that I have read at least five biographies, assessments, evaluations or interpretations of Robert E. Lee for each of those years. I am certain that when all the books and articles are added together they number close to a hundred. It's important that I do that. It's my job and my responsibility to have as comprehensive an understanding of Robert E. Lee's life as is possible so that I can honestly and accurately convey it to the people who visit and the students who partake in our education programs. But with all of these books and articles there is a certain consistency, not with interpretation but with information. It is safe to say that since Douglas Southall Freeman wrote his landmark, Pulitzer Prize winning four volume biography in the 1930's the assumption has been that there is nothing new that can be found out about Lee. Freeman's work was so exhaustive, seemingly leaving no stone or document unturned, that, it seems, every biographer of Lee since then has taken the approach that no new research was needed or possible. Instead, it became the fashion for biographers and other historians to simply take what Freeman researched and interpret it in whatever way they wanted. Thomas Connelly chose to psychoanalyze Lee in a groundbreaking and exceptionally flawed work, The Marble Man while Alan Nolan chose a lawyerly approach, constructing the case against Robert E. Lee in his book, Lee Considered, as if Lee had never been considered before. And there have been others, many quite reverential but the problem with all of them is that they've all used the same information. Writing about Lee ceased being about scholarship and instead became bickering op ed pieces. And the greatest crime of it has been that it has made Robert E. Lee uninteresting. How many times can you read the same things, no matter what way they've been spun, and still remain excited? I stopped being interested in reading things about Lee over five years ago. I have forced myself to keep reading but there has been no joy in it. Until now. Elizabeth Brown Pryor and her extraordinary new book, Reading The Man, has single-handedly revived what was hitherto unrevivable. She has made Robert E. Lee come to life in a way that no other writer has ever been able to do and she has done it in a way that should make every other biographer of Lee blush: she has let the man speak for himself and she has done it through new research. Yes, new research. Certainly much of the new material she has uncovered has been locked away in trunks for almost a century so other researchers including Freeman had no access to it. But some of what she's used has been available to researchers for decades they just chose not to look. Intellectual laziness? Or have researchers just been content with what they've had? Fortunately, Elizabeth Pryor was neither lazy nor content and what she has cons

Lee Revealed

I have not yet finished the book, but I can say without reservation that thus far this has been the most revealing book on Robert E. Lee I have read. Even the huge four volume biography that Douglas S. Freeman wrote on Lee (that won a Pulitzer Prize) doesn't compare. One reason is that the author had access to previously unreleased letters by and to Lee, along with other family members and close associates. Given that letters were the main form of communication in an era before the telephone, faxes and email, much is revealed about Lee and his life. Of course, Pryor's research, organization and writing style is helpful, explaining the letters in the context of the times and also placing them in chronological/themeatic chapters. I do have to agree with one of the reviewers- a family tree, showing the relationships between REL and his huge extended family would have been extremely helpful. Pryor points out that like many upper class Southern families of the time, the Lees tended to intermarry with a few select other families, making it very difficult to figure out who was who. I have always felt it was tragic that RE Lee died before he could write his own story. Since then, others have written his story for him, often with axes to grind both positive and negative. This has been a disservice to Lee and his place in history. I think finally that READING THE MAN comes closest to revealing Lee as he was.

Very good work!

Is their person more of an icon than Robert E. Lee? Toward the end of the war, he was the living symbol of the Confederacy's hope. After his death, he became the Christ-like central figure in Myth the Lost Cause, the "marble man" of history. The Politically Correct Myth of the Civil War insistently attacks him as a traitor and slave owner while trying to show his feet of clay. Biographies tend to be sugarcoated stories of his life, denouncements or pseudo-psychological studies of his "mental problems". This book contains none of the above and allows the Lees among others to speak for themselves. The format of each chapter is a letter or excerpts from letters that introduce the subject followed by an intelligent and balanced discussion. Those looking to worship "General Lee" or those looking to damn him, will not be happy. However, if you wish to gain an understanding of the man, this is an excellent book. The author is neither judgmental nor loving. She presents Lee within the confines of his class, training and the times. This helps the reader understand the decisions made and his actions. What emerges is an intelligent, ambitious family man doing what he feels is best. On of the nicest items in the book is the author's recognition of the pseudo-psychological studies and why they fail to explain the man. While this in not a major item in the book, it shows a sense of fairness lacking in some books. It is hard not to admire Robert E. Lee and the author clearly admires him. However, I never felt that this admiration interferes with her honest evaluation of him. After reading the book, I agreed with the observation "Cousin Robert is only human" and had all the contradictions of the species.

A good look at the life of Robert E. Lee

For those who wish to have a good look at the life of Robert E. Lee in one volume, this is the book to use as a basic biography and guide. Author Elizabeth Brown Pryor has taken letters written by Lee as the springboard for each of the chapters of the book, corresponding with the chapters in his life. This gives the reader a chance to read and sense the tone of the celebrated General, in his own words. Surely, this was not an easy task since there are about 10,000 known letters of Robert E. Lee scattered hither and yon. To find, read and cull the best of these must have been both Herculean and painstaking. One suspects it has also been a labor of love. Those with the sketchiest knowledge of Lee will remember that his father was a Revolutionary War era hero, that he had an almost unparalleled record as a West Point cadet, that he married into the Custis and therefore Washington family, making him not only one of the First Families of Virginia but also of the First Family of America. Of course best known is Lee's choice to side with state and kindred during the Civil War and the resultant verve and disappointment on the field of battle. In this 200th birthday anniversary year, Pryor fleshes out these facts with a nuanced portrait of a complex man whose personal and professional life are not as easily summarized as one might suppose. Dealing with those who came before her who served as Lee's uncritical biographers, Pryor demythologizes Lee in a respectful way, allowing him to be not only three dimensional but also multifaceted. She also gives an outstanding précis of aspects of the Lee hagiography and misconceptions that have persisted through repetition. It would be correct to call Pryor's approach even-handed. She clearly appreciates that Lee was a towering figure in his time; she also allows the reader to see his eccentricities. The book is excellent on some challenging subjects such as Lee's attitude toward slavery and how it compares to the attitudes of his contemporaries. Pryor also gives us an account of Lee's unabashed affection for women. The chapter on Lee's tenure as head of West Point speaks volumes about how Lee was perceived by those who observed him as a professional soldier preparing others to be professional soldiers. The author's description of what went right and what went wrong at some of the key battles of the war, notably Gettysburg, are well done, and will provide both the general reader and the Civil War expert good starting points for conversation. Even so, I must confess that the second part of the book was for me slower-going than the first half. Whether that is due to Lee, Pryor or me, I am not sure. Nor am I sure what to conclude about Robert E. Lee--a man of honor (rightly placed or mis-placed), of brilliance (and obstinacy) in peace and in war, and a man who took a road less traveled by which made all the difference. The book has many fine illustrations scattered throughout the text, including many portraits

Meeting the person

As of the writing of this review (5/13/07) I am only 50 some pages into this book and I am already finding it the best book written for any one with a desire to place RE Lee the man into the framework of family, society, and the unique culture of his time. I will add to this review as I move through the book. (5/31/07) I am now more than 260 pages into the book and it is still capturing my attention and drawing me into a deeper discovery of REL. This is NOT revisionist history. If you are looking for something to help get you past the "Lost Cause Mythos" of the Civil War and crack the surface of Lee as the so-called "Marble Man" then this is the book for you. If there is one thing I wish the author had done differently it would have been helpful to have a time line of Lee's life pointing out major events, as well as a family tree of the families that are central to the history.