Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site topaz.RUTGERS.EDU Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!columbia!topaz!JOSH From: JOSH@RED.RUTGERS.EDU Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: L Neil Smith and Alexander Hamilton Message-ID: <3719@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> Date: Fri, 20-Sep-85 18:53:21 EDT Article-I.D.: topaz.3719 Posted: Fri Sep 20 18:53:21 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 05:31:41 EDT Sender: daemon@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 22 From: JoSH Not too long ago, there was a message about a new L Neil Smith book. The title is actually "The Gallatin Divergence", not "... Connection". More interestingly, there was a comment about Smith's portrayal of historical characters, which one assumes referred to the sexual hi-jinks ascribed to Hamilton in the book. It turns out that the real Alexander Hamilton was actually involved in a sex scandal. We do not know the physical details of his dalliances, so it is impossible to confirm (or discredit!) Smith's conjectures. However, there was quite a row about it at the time. The implication by Smith that Hamilton's sexual and political proclivities went hand in hand is *not* unhistorical: There is a surviving letter by John Adams claiming that Hamilton's excessive ambitions were due to "a superabundance of secretions." --JoSH ------- Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com