American Scoundrel: The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles

By Thomas Keneally

Hero, adulterer, bon vivant, murderer and rogue, Dan Sickles led the kind of existence that was indeed stranger than fiction. Throughout his life he exhibited the kind of exuberant charm and lack of scruple that wins friends, seduces women, and gets people killed. In American Scoundrel Thomas Keneally, the acclaimed author of Schindler’s List, creates a biography that is as lively and engrossing as its subject.

Dan Sickles was a member of Congress, led a controversial charge at Gettysburg, and had an affair with the deposed Queen of Spain—among many other women. But the most startling of his many exploits was his murder of Philip Barton Key (son of Francis Scott Key), the lover of his long-suffering and neglected wife, Teresa. The affair, the crime, and the trial contained all the ingredients of melodrama needed to ensure that it was the scandal of the age. At the trial’s end, Sickles was acquitted and hardly chastened. His life, in which outrage and accomplishment had equal force, is a compelling American tale, told with the skill of a master narrative.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: May 13, 2003
• ISBN: 9781400075546

Thomas Keneally

Thomas Keneally began his writing career in 1964 and has published thirty-three novels since, most recently Crimes of the Father, Napoleon’s Last Island, Shame and the Captives, and the New York Times bestselling The Daughters of Mars. He is also the author of Schindler’s List, which won the Booker Prize in 1982, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Gossip from the Forest, and Confederates, all of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has also written several works of nonfiction, including his boyhood memoir Homebush Boy, The Commonwealth of Thieves, and Searching for Schindler. He is married with two daughters and lives in Sydney, Australia.

Reviews for American Scoundrel

[schmerguls · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

5611. American Scoundrel The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles, by Thomas Keneally (read 28 Jan 2019) On 27 Nov 1980 I read W. A. Swanberg's biography of Dan Sickles and I was so struck by its excellence that I have read every book by Swanberg that I could get my hands on. So when I was given this biography of Sickles I wondered if I should read it since I remembered so well the excellent biography by Swanberg. I found this book relied a lot on Swanberg's biography but has a lot in it which the earlier biography did not have. In fact, this book tells so much about the trial in 1859 of Sickles for the murder of Francis Scott Key's son that I, who am much interested in trials, thought the account was excessively detailed, though I was annoyed that the judge in the trial was so lenient as to allow spectators to cheer words by the lawyers! (I would have held such cheerers in contempt, as I think many a judge would have.. So that part of the book did not impress me much. But the account of Sickles time in the Civil War is full of interest and all the part of the book from then on is full of interest and good to read. The life of Sickles did not end till 1914 and the years he lived after the war (in which he lost a leg) are interest-filled and excellently done. So my reading of the book I am glad to say was a great good thing.

[ellenh_28 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Notorious is right. He was a womanizer, politician ( some would say crooked), murderer, a general and later ambassador. If we think politics are rough and full of $$$ this reminds one that it isn't new.

[jbd1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A perfectly serviceable biography of Dan Sickles, with significant attention also given to Sickles' wife Teresa, whose affair with Philip Barton Key precipitated one of the major events recounted here: Sickles' murder of Key just yards from the White House. The affair and ensuing trial make up a fair portion of Keneally's book; in fact, after that point it seems to lose some steam, and the remainder (including the Civil War and Sickles' later career as a diplomat) lacks luster.I noticed a few small errors, among them the facts that New York Senator Ira Harris was neither a Democrat nor was he in Lincoln's theater box during the assassination (his daughter Clara was present). As I said, perfectly adequate, but structured a bit differently, this could have been an even better book.

[jbgusa · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A fascinating, well-written story of a person who should be better known. He may have been a bastard; but he was our bastard.

[squiremike · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The first half of this book thoroughly explores Dan Sickles' life and that of his first wife, Teresa. Great care is taken to provide a detailed account of Teresa's affair with Phillip Barton Key, Sickles' killing of Key, and the sensational trial that followed. After that point, the rest of the book seems rushed and Sickles' life summarized -- including Sickles' Civil War experience, which seems like a denouement to his life. More care is taken to imagine how Teresa might have felt at not accompanying Dan on his various adventures than on the defining episode of his life as a Civil War general: his controversial repositioning of his corps during the Battle of Gettysburg.

[whirled_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Though the book is called American Scoundrel, Thomas Keneally can't quite bring himself to condemn murdering politician and soldier Dan Sickles. As an Australian, I wondered if this was due to our national tendency to revere a 'rogue' (like the infamous bushranger Ned Kelly). The book does lay bare the stark double standard applied to men and women with regard to sexual mores, especially at a time when women were regarded as mentally enfeebled children who belonged to their husbands as property. Also, for those not overly familiar with the American Civil War, Keneally also covers the Battle of Gettysburg in some detail. And, typical of Keneally, it's well-written and accessible.

[bob1438 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Slow and disjointed in the beginning, but a fascinating read after that. Why didn't the author include a few photographs?