Scandalmonger
New York Times political columnist William Safire offers an historical fiction about scoundrels, scandal, and the dawn of celebrity in late 18th century America. John Adams is president; Thomas Jefferson is vice president; and Alexander Hamilton is treasury secretary. At the epicenter of this federal triumvirate is the muckraking journalist James Thomson Callender, known by many in the capitol as the scandalmonger for his uncovering of the secret lives of politicians. Though loathed by modern historians for his attempts at ruining the careers of two of the greatest Americans of his day by revealing Jefferson`s affair with Sally Hemings and Hamilton`s relationship with Maria Reynolds, Safire here paints a tragic and pathetic portrait of a man ruled by his hunger for acceptance in an age of great men and noble statesmen. A New York Times Notable Book for the year 2000.

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