Almanac of Story Tellers: Ron Chernow

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  March 3rd

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    It is the 62nd day of the year, leaving 303 days remaining in 2022.

 

   On this date in 1949, the American historian Ron Chernow was born.

    If it weren't for Chernow, there would be no Hamilton: An American Musical. He didn't write it, direct it, star in it or sing in it. His unknowing (at the time) contribution was to write a scholarly biography of the (10-dollar) Founding Father (without a father) that happened to make it on the best-seller list and into an airport bookstore.

    It was there, famously, that Lin-Manuel Miranda, while taking a break from writing and starring in his first musical, In the Heights, picked it up.

    Miranda thought Chernow's portrayal of Hamilton sounded much like the rap and hip-hop stars he grew up listening to. Indeed, he liked it so much he spend years creating a musical version, even hiring Chernow to serve as it historical consultant.

    Meanwhile, reviewers and historians said Chernow's biography deserved its place atop the best seller list. On reviewer called it "one of those happy rarities: a popular biography that should also delight scholars."

    But the Hamilton biography wasn't Chernow's first rodeo. Instead, it seemed to culminate his life's work as a biography of historical bankers and financers. He previously published books on the dynasty of J. Pierpoint Morgan, a biography of John D. Rockefeller, and wrote The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family.

    More recently, he has been writing about presidents, with biographies of George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant.

    His books have won numerous awards, including the National Humanities Medal; the American History Prize and the Pulitzer Prize for Washington: A Life; and the National Book Award for Nonfiction for The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance.