Two Rooms: The Life of Charles Erskine Scott Wood

Rating:
Summary: A Renaissance Man of the 19th Century
Review: This is a fascinating account of Charles Erskine Scott Wood, a true Renaissance man: lawyer, painter, poet, patron of the arts, champion of the disenfranchised. In writing about the life of this passionate and vibrant man, Hamburger describes not only a man and his family, but also the greater community: the West, the nation, and the political and social tides that were sweeping the continent during Wood's lifetime. Colonel Wood, a young graduate of West Point, was sent to the northwest to participate in the Indian wars, specifically those with the Nez Perce. Ultimately he became a close friend of Chief Joseph, even sending his son to live with the tribe for a period of six months. This book reads well. Hamburger is an engaging story-teller, and Wood's life provides him with much grist for the mill.

Rating:
Summary: A crackerjack of a biography
Review: Two Rooms : The Life of Charles Erskine Scott Wood By Robert Hamburger

This is a crackerjack of a biography about one of the most fascinating Americans of his time: dashing West Point graduate, Indian fighter, outstanding lawyer, poet, anarchist, romantic lover, satirist, visionary, discriminating patron of arts and the list goes on an on. So many facets, in fact, had Charles Erskine Scott Wood that it is hard to believe that they belonged to one swashbuckling champion for justice and independence.

Perhaps that is why Colonel Wood needed two rooms for himself in his suite of law offices in Portland, Oregon. One room was where he counseled his corporate clients whom he represented with zeal and intelligence to earn the large fees he needed to maintain his luxurious life style. The other room was for his other life, the life of the poet-anarchist-romantic where he let his other self flourish. It was the two room symbol that inspired the title to Robert Hamburger's well written, hard-to-put-down biography.

The life of C.E.S. Wood reads like a cross section of American history -- covering his 92 year life span. As a lad, Wood saw Abraham Lincoln campaigning to become president. As a young man, Wood was appointed to West Point by President Grant; was ordered to Oregon and later he fought the Nez Perce Indians in the last great Indian War of the Northwest after which Wood recorded and made famous the thrilling, yet tragic, words of resignation by Chief Joseph: "From where the sun now stands, Joseph will fight no more, forever."

Wood chose to remain in Portland in the late part of the 19th century, studied law, became a respected member of the bar, handled complicated and high profile cases while all the time he remained dramatically vocal about his anarchism.

Many famous personalities of his time paraded through Wood's life, like a march of American and literary history: Mark Twain, Lincoln Steffens, Woodrow Wilson, Clarence Darrow, John Cowper Powys, Emma Goldman and many others. If they were prominent, he met them, hosted them, corresponded with them, befriended them.

Wood had great passions and he wore them grandly. His early passion for wife Nan cooled over the years. In his 50's he was all but consumed by his turbulent affair with the Portland suffragette Sara Bard Field. Finally, after providing for them financially, Wood left his wife and family and moved to San Francisco to spend his vintage years with Sara and to devote the rest of his life to being his other self, the creative, poetic self, the occupant of the 'second room.'

One may not entirely approve of everything Wood did, but that certainly does not detract from the absorbing review of his unique life.

6/3/2000

Rating:
Summary: A crackerjack of a biography
Review: Two Rooms : The Life of Charles Erskine Scott Wood By Robert Hamburger

This is a crackerjack of a biography about one of the most fascinating Americans of his time: dashing West Point graduate, Indian fighter, outstanding lawyer, poet, anarchist, romantic lover, satirist, visionary, discriminating patron of arts and the list goes on an on. So many facets, in fact, had Charles Erskine Scott Wood that it is hard to believe that they belonged to one swashbuckling champion for justice and independence.

Perhaps that is why Colonel Wood needed two rooms for himself in his suite of law offices in Portland, Oregon. One room was where he counseled his corporate clients whom he represented with zeal and intelligence to earn the large fees he needed to maintain his luxurious life style. The other room was for his other life, the life of the poet-anarchist-romantic where he let his other self flourish. It was the two room symbol that inspired the title to Robert Hamburger's well written, hard-to-put-down biography.

The life of C.E.S. Wood reads like a cross section of American history -- covering his 92 year life span. As a lad, Wood saw Abraham Lincoln campaigning to become president. As a young man, Wood was appointed to West Point by President Grant; was ordered to Oregon and later he fought the Nez Perce Indians in the last great Indian War of the Northwest after which Wood recorded and made famous the thrilling, yet tragic, words of resignation by Chief Joseph: "From where the sun now stands, Joseph will fight no more, forever."

Wood chose to remain in Portland in the late part of the 19th century, studied law, became a respected member of the bar, handled complicated and high profile cases while all the time he remained dramatically vocal about his anarchism.

Many famous personalities of his time paraded through Wood's life, like a march of American and literary history: Mark Twain, Lincoln Steffens, Woodrow Wilson, Clarence Darrow, John Cowper Powys, Emma Goldman and many others. If they were prominent, he met them, hosted them, corresponded with them, befriended them.

Wood had great passions and he wore them grandly. His early passion for wife Nan cooled over the years. In his 50's he was all but consumed by his turbulent affair with the Portland suffragette Sara Bard Field. Finally, after providing for them financially, Wood left his wife and family and moved to San Francisco to spend his vintage years with Sara and to devote the rest of his life to being his other self, the creative, poetic self, the occupant of the 'second room.'

One may not entirely approve of everything Wood did, but that certainly does not detract from the absorbing review of his unique life.

6/3/2000