Christopher Benfey

Fascinating story of how the lives of so many important people in American literature, art, and history entwined, like vines, and how many of them shared an interest in hummingbirds.
More people are part of the story than just the four in the title; all of their families figured into the history, and not a few other celebrities. Twain does not figure as heavily as the rest, especially the Beechers and the Dickinsons; Heade was unknown to me. Mabel Loomis Todd and her husband David, as well as Victoria Woodhull, also figure in the affairs (literally) of the main subjects. Lord Byron and his wife are off-stage actors, but still important.

Art, passion, love, adultery, romance, poetry and everything else.
The only complaint I have is not unique to this writer: skipping around among so many people at different times, and in different places, became very confusing, especially when an episode involving some of them was described before an earlier episode involving someone else.
A timeline of important dates would have been very helpful. Also,for someone not a close student or aficionado of the period, the places the author mentions need to be located on a map.
There are some black & white illustrations taken from the works of some of the subjects. No illustrator is credited that I could see.
A good companion to "American Bloomsbury" by Susan Cheever, chronicling the lives of the Emersons, Hawthornes, Alcotts, Thoreau, and others.… (more)