While president of Aetna Life from 1879 to 1922, Morgan Bulkeley served four terms as mayor of Hartford, two terms as Connecticut’s governor, and one term as a United States senator. His friends and business and political acquaintances were a who’s who of the Gilded Age: Samuel Clemens, J. P. Morgan, Samuel and Elizabeth Colt, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, Albert Spalding, General Sherman, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Katherine Hepburn, as well as every president from Ulysses Grant to Warren Harding. In 1874 Bulkeley formed the Hartford Dark Blues who soon joined the unruly National Association, antecedent of the National League. He served as the league’s first president for a year, and was later elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. It was during Bulkeley’s controversial “holdover” term as governor that he earned the nickname “Crowbar Governor.” He used a crowbar to remove a lock that had been placed on his office door after refusing to vacate the governor’s chambers on a technicality. Written in classic storyteller fashion, and augmented by copious research, Crowbar Governor offers readers a privileged glimpse into life and politics in Connecticut during the Gilded Age. Ebook Edition Note: Eight images from the Connecticut Historical Society have been redacted.

本作は、絢爛たる「金ぴか時代」を縦横無尽に駆け抜けた傑物バルクリーの生涯を、重厚な筆致で描いた白熱の評伝です。マーク・トウェインら巨星たちと交錯する濃密な人間模様は、単なる伝記の枠を超え、一級の歴史小説を凌駕する知的な興奮を誘います。 圧巻なのは、執務室の扉をバールでこじ開けた逸話に象徴される、不屈で型破りな意志の力です。野球殿堂から政界の頂点までを制した男の野心と、激動の時代の息吹を鮮やかに再現。正道と覇道の境界を突破するバルクリーの生き様は、停滞する現代に生きる我々の魂を激しく揺さぶるはずです。