SOURCE: Bruce, H. Addington. “John Brown of Osawatomie.” New York Times Book Review 15, no. 42 (15 October 1910): 567.

In the following review, Bruce praises Villard's biography of John Brown as a thorough and conscientious, if controversial, work.

Mr. Villard's John Brown is a capital example of the thorough, the conscientious and the candidly critical in historical writing. It may well be described as the first really adequate biography of a man who, whatever one may think of the chief acts of his life, has won a conspicuous place among American immortals. In its preparation no available source of information seems to have been neglected. Original documents, contemporary letters and living witnesses have been examined in all parts of the country. Materials never before utilized have been drawn upon, and use has been made of others whose existence has hitherto been unknown. There is a constant citation of authorities, the note references...