Henry Ward Beecher, clergyman, orator, editor, and author, was considered the greatest preacher of his time. The famous son of a famous father, he also was the brother of a famous sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). Beecher, a flamboyant, magnetic personality, was for many years pastor of the fashionable Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights, New York, which boasted a membership of about 2,500. He was at various times also a newspaper editor and writer. He wrote several books, including a novel; collections of his sermons and orations also appeared in book form. However, Beecher is sometimes best remembered for his involvement in one of the most widely publicized sex scandals in American history.

Beecher was born 24 June 1813 in Litchfield, Connecticut, the eighth of thirteen children. His father, Lyman Beecher, a widely known and sometimes controversial minister, was then pastor of a church in Litchfield and...