Dwight Garner, an excellent book critic for the
New York Times, blogs about my critique of Edward J. Renehan Jr.'s book,
Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt. You can read Garner's fine post
here.
Renehan's book, I believe, is indeed a case of "biographical malpractice," as Garner puts it. It makes demonstrably false claims based on secret sources, which I do not believe actually exist. And yet, the book is still in print, and still on library shelves. That's a real shame. It's damaging the public's knowledge of Cornelius Vanderbilt, a pivotal business figure.
You can read my full comments on this subject on my other blog,
here.
