'The Significance of Being Frank' by Tom Foran Clark

"'The Significance of Being Frank' is a rare biographical gem on the Web -- a complete online biography. Sanborn is little known to our generation but we have author Clark to thank for changing that. This elegant and evidently well-researched portrait of Sanborn gives us insight into the abolitionist, publisher, and educator who was at Concord with Thoreau and Emerson and was confidential advisor to John Brown. Highly recommended."

Kenneth Lanxner, Editor, "Inside Lives," the ezine for "Lives, The Biography Resource," at http://www.amillionlives.com -- with links to thousands of biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, diaries, letters, narratives, oral histories and more.

"I have just finished reading 'The Significance of Being Frank.' It is related, annotated, and anatomized with a skill that compels not only a reader's constant admiration but, what is perhaps more remarkable, his constant attention. The reader is swept along in a torrent of enthusiasm. Indeed, the whole book is a model of what a biography should be -- clear in its reasoning, judicious and calm, orderly in its marshaling of facts, rightly disdainful of purely imaginative reconstruction, and always brilliantly alive in both narrative and discussion. Sanborn deserves his memoir. This is a singularly remarkable accomplishment."

A. J. Anderson, professor, Simmons College, author of "Thoreau: A Provisional Interpretation" (Thoreau Journal Quarterly, Volume 3, Number 3, July 15, 1971), and editor of Lin Yutang: The Best of an Old Friend (New York: Mason/Charter, 1975).

"Not only is this undeservedly marginalized figure brought to life in this compelling work, but the intimate details of Clark's narrative brings Sanborn's Transcendentalist world to life as well. This remarkable biography produces for the reader a direct sense of the social nerve and intellectual daring of 19th Century New England. Clark has done an outstanding job in the art of biography.... Easy to navigate, well researched, a must read for anyone seriously interested in U.S. History and American Transcendental Philosophy and Literature."

Danne Polk, Philosophy Research Base (www.erraticimpact.com)

Original Contribution Award
Awarded by the Philosophy Research Base