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WORK TITLE: Founding Martyr
WORK NOTES:
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BIRTHDATE:
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COUNTRY: United States
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Based in New York City and Williamsburg, Virginia. http://foundingmartyr.com/books/founding-martyr-hc
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Studied at Columbia University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Historian. Has served as a public speaker and volunteer at Colonial Williamsburg.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Christian di Spigna is an historian. He serves as a public speaker and volunteer at Colonial Williamsburg. Di Spigna offers talks about the revolutionary period of American history.
Di Spigna published Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution’s Lost Hero in 2018. This biography of Joseph Warren highlights his contributions as one of the founding fathers despite his premature death in his mid-thirties. He penned the Suffolk Resolves, which served as a large influence on colonial policy before the start of the war for independence. He also served as a military commander, was the one to order Paul Revere make his celebrated ride, was a planner of the Boston Tea Party, and directed the first spy ring. Using Warren’s own documents, di Spigna recreates his life as a doctor and slave owner, as a widower father of four children, and he also paints a picture of how the British viewed him as a serious adversary.
In an article in the Daily Press Online, di Spigna mentioned that he first started research Warren while writing his thesis as a student at Columbia University. Di Spigna said of Warren: “Here’s this guy, he keeps being mentioned for all events…. It’s amazing how his footprints are everywhere but nobody knows about him.” Di Spigna credits gaining access to Warren’s medical ledgers through his descendents as being most helpful. He recalled: “A lot of things I was able to find out about his personal life had been elusive for so many years.”
A contributor to Kirkus Reviews wished: “Hopefully, Di Spigna’s insightful biography will rekindle public interest in Warren, a man who deserves to be remembered for more than his death at Bunker Hill.” Booklist contributor Jay Freeman opined that “this is a valuable reminder that it takes all types to make a revolution.” Freeman pointed out, though, that Founding Martyr borders “on hagiography.” A Publishers Weekly contributor insisted that Founding Martyr “will give readers a fuller picture of American leadership before the active engagement of those now called the founding fathers.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, August 1, 2018, Jay Freeman, review of Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution’s Lost Hero, p. 19.
Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2018, review of Founding Martyr.
Publishers Weekly, June 25, 2018, review of Founding Martyr, p. 177.
ONLINE
Daily Press Online, http://www.dailypress.com/ (August 14, 2018), Andi Petrini, “HRBook Notes: Little-known Founding Father Detailed in New Biography from Williamsburg Author.”
Founding Martyr website, http://www.foundingmartyr.com/ (October 12, 2018), author profile.
HRBook notes: Little-known Founding Father detailed in new biography from Williamsburg author
Williamsburg author Christian Di Spigna has released a book on Dr. Joseph Warren. (contributed photo / HANDOUT)
Andi PetriniContact Reporter
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Years of research and uncovering primary documents led Christian Di Spigna to publishing his first work.
“Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution’s Lost Hero” was released Aug. 14 by Crown Publishing. The biography examines the life — and death — of one of the more unknown Founding Fathers.
Di Spigna shares his time between Williamsburg and New York City, where he is originally from. He will be at the Barnes and Noble near the College of William and Mary’s campus 11 a.m. Sept. 1 for a book signing.
Part of Di Spigna’s book tour will take him to New England, including stops in Massachusetts, which is where Warren resided.
Warren was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill before the start of the American Revolution. Di Spigna said Warren’s influence on American thought leading up to the war with ruler Great Britain was significant and in league with fellow Massachusetts revolutionaries John Adams, Samuel Adams and Paul Revere, among others.
Di Spigna said he was intrigued by Warren’s story, and even more so by the fact that it has gone largely untold. He said his interest was piqued when he came across Warren’s name in a book by the doctor’s niece.
“Here’s this guy, he keeps being mentioned for all events,” Di Spigna said.
His detective work to uncoverwho Warren was and his impact in the nation moving toward revolution began while he was a student at Columbia University. An adviser, after reading Di Spigna’s senior thesis on Warren, encouraged him to write the definitive biography.
Warren performed the autopsies following the Boston Massacre, Di Spigna said, and helped plan the Boston Tea Party. While representatives were in Philadelphia for the Continental Congress, Warren kept the movement going in Boston.
“It’s amazing how his footprints are everywhere but nobody knows about him,” Di Spigna said.
Tracking down those footprints was “painstaking and time consuming,” Di Spigna said. Warren had burned much of his personal correspondence because he didn’t want to be caught by the British, which would have been treason.
One of the things Di Spigna uncovered was a mourning ring of Warren’s wife, after she died. Another major find was one of Warren’s medical ledgers. Di Spigna said he was able to find some of Warren’s living descendants and unearthed family documents.
“A lot of things I was able to find out about his personal life had been elusive for so many years,” he said.
A former volunteer at Colonial Williamsburg, Di Spigna said he mined his resources there as he uncovered more information about Warren’s life.
He said it took years to figure out what descriptions in the medical ledgers meant, and he used help from historic interpreters in the apothecary shop to help him translate. Di Spigna said he stopped being a volunteer at Colonial Williamsburg in the height of writing his book.
CW interpreters also helped him uncover that Warren was a man of wealth and taste, with a carriage painted vermilion — “the most expensive color” of the time — and kept up with the fashions of London.
Di Spigna said his publisher was great in working with him, extending his research time, but eventually had him throw in the towel and get the book done.
While Di Spigna said he plans to focus on getting Warren’s name into the public with the book’s publication, he also has some ideas brewing for what he might tackle next. He said he isn’t sure if he wants to do another biography, but it will be nonfiction.
CHRISTIAN DI SPIGNA is a writer based in New York City and Williamsburg, Virginia. A regular speaker and volunteer at Colonial Williamsburg, Di Spigna is an expert on the history of the era and educates a wide array of audiences.
Di Spigna, Christian: FOUNDING MARTYR
Kirkus Reviews. (June 1, 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Di Spigna, Christian FOUNDING MARTYR Crown (Adult Nonfiction) $28.00 8, 14 ISBN: 978-0-553-41932-0
A fresh biography of an underappreciated figure in American history.
John Trumbull immortalized Dr. Joseph Warren (1741-1775) in his painting The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill, which depicted the demise of the young physician and military officer. In his first book, Di Spigna, a speaker and volunteer at Colonial Williamsburg, reminds readers that Warren was more than a man who sacrificed his life for the cause of liberty. The son of a pious Massachusetts farmer, Warren attended Harvard, where the future revolutionary developed his oratorical skills when he was not committing pranks such as nailing his roommates' shoes to the floor. His training as a physician coincided with the post-French and Indian War crisis between Britain and her American Colonies, and Warren would hold several positions in the Massachusetts resistance: head of the Boston Committee of Correspondence and North End Caucus, president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, and chairman of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety. He delivered two prominent orations on the Boston Massacre, wrote numerous articles and pamphlets, authored the Suffolk Resolves, sent Paul Revere on his famous ride, operated a spy ring, and participated in the battles of Lexington and Concord. In short, Di Spigna persuasively argues that Warren was "a rare combination of statesman and warrior" and that "his effective arsenal of voice, pen, and sword was unrivaled by any other patriot." Yet the author does not neglect Warren's medical career. He was one of the most prominent and respected physicians in Massachusetts, inoculating hundreds of people against smallpox without a single death. Warren was also a prominent Mason and devoted family man.
In his first inaugural address, Ronald Reagan referred to Joseph Warren as "a man who might have been one of the greatest among the founding fathers." Hopefully, Di Spigna's insightful biography will rekindle public interest in Warren, a man who deserves to be remembered for more than his death at Bunker Hill.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Di Spigna, Christian: FOUNDING MARTYR." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A540723317/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=91405f3c. Accessed 17 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A540723317
Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero
Jay Freeman
Booklist. 114.22 (Aug. 1, 2018): p19.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero.
By Christian Di Spigna.
Aug. 2018. 336p. Crown, $28 (9780553419320). 973.3092.
The short but eventful life of Dr. Joseph Warren should have earned him a place in the pantheon of heroes of our struggle for independence, alongside Samuel and John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington. His death at 34 at the Battle of Bunker Hill, granted him the status of selfless martyrdom, yet his reputation and fame quickly dimmed. In this unabashedly admiring biography, Di Spigna strives to restore Warren's fame. By his mid-twenties, he was a very successful Boston surgeon, one with radical political views, who was rising quickly in the city's turmoil during the 1770s, even after his wife's death left him responsible for four young children. Warren wrote seditious tracts against the royal government, sent Dawes and Revere to spread the word to Lexington and Concord, and then helped attack British troops. While Di Spigna's account verges on hagiography, readers may sense that Warren was a romantic adventurer who preferred fighting to the pursuits of healing and family life. This is a valuable reminder that it takes all types to make a revolution.--Jay Freeman
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Freeman, Jay. "Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero." Booklist, 1 Aug. 2018, p. 19. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A550613083/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=8dd22c3f. Accessed 17 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A550613083
Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero
Publishers Weekly. 265.26 (June 25, 2018): p177.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero
Christian Di Spigna. Crown, $28 (336p) ISBN 978-0-553-41932-0
Di Spigna argues that, although Joseph Warren (1741-1775) remains largely unknown, he was "one of the most important figures in the movement for independence," a characterization amply supported by the evidence presented in this revealing and insightful biography. The doctor-turned-revolutionary wrote the Suffolk Resolves, "the pivotal documents that shaped the policies of the colonies on the eve of independence," ran the rebels' first spy ring, ordered Paul Revere's midnight ride, and served as a military commander before George Washington. During the decade preceding his death, starting with the Stamp Act, "Warren was at the center of almost every major conflict" in the Boston area. He died at Bunker Hill in 1775 because he remained on the battlefield until his troops had all gone, and he was regarded as so dangerous by the British that his corpse was decapitated and mutilated. Di Spigna incorporates diligent research, enhanced by analysis of primary sources only he has tracked down (such as medical records Warren maintained for his practice), into a gripping narrative that doesn't shy away from the darkness in his subject, including Warren's family's ownership of slaves. This book will give readers a fuller picture of American leadership before the active engagement of those now called the founding fathers. (Aug.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero." Publishers Weekly, 25 June 2018, p. 177. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A545023450/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ef224f83. Accessed 17 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A545023450