Bound for Glory.(presidential biographies)(Essay)

Biographers of Andrew Jackson used to be cursed. On January 8, 1815, the General led American forces in a stunning defeat of an invading British Army, winning the Battle of New Orleans at the end of the War of 1812. With a political career in mind, he cast about for a biographer to chronicle his exploits. He settled on David Ramsay, a sixty-six-year-old South Carolina legislator and physician and gifted historian whose books included a "Life of George Washington," published in 1807. But, before Ramsay had a chance to begin, he was shot in the back, three times, by a mad tailor on the streets of Charleston. (Ramsay had earlier ventured a medical opinion that the tailor was ...