Sunday Books & Culture
Reviews include the Civil War era crime legacy of Charles Cowlam in Frank W. Garman’s “A Wonderful Career in Crime” and lessons for life and leadership in Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s “True Gretch"
Books and Culture is edited by Vanessa Sekinger
A Wonderful Career in Crime
By Frank W. Garman, Jr.
Published by LSU Press (July 23, 2024)
Hardcover $45.00
Reviewed by Drew Gallagher
History is peppered with scoundrels. Most of their ill-begotten legacies tend to vanish in time which is often the preference of the ancestors left behind. Not many people want the world to know that their Great Great Uncle lied about his service in the Civil War, was a bigamist, and regularly stole money and information from the United States Postal Service. Author Frank W. Garman, Jr., however, has assured that Charles Cowlam will not soon be forgotten.
In A Wonderful Career in Crime, Garmon gives a finely-researched book on the exploits of Cowlam—at least to the point that history and Garmon’s research allows. Cowlam changed his name often in an effort to run the same grifts in different cities after the Civil War when background checks could take months, and numerous letters across states and sometimes oceans. Garmon finds a remarkable amount of information on Cowlam and offers an intriguing glimpse into his life, but when Cowlam appears to vanish from history for a dozen years, there are gaps in the fascinating story that the author can only speculate upon.
Cowlam seems to have fallen from the womb and into a life of deceit. Even when he manages to attain a job of some import early in life with the USPS, he can’t help torpedoing his prospects by stealing money from letters. The federal prison sentence that followed did afford him the opportunity to avoid service in the Civil War. But his stay in a Richmond prison allowed him to pick up the stories of inmates who knew of the fight and allowed him to craft a new background to exploit in the future.
After prison, Cowlam finds opportunity in the chaos created by the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He offers up firsthand knowledge of Confederate conspiracies to the investigators and is hired temporarily as a detective and agent. Cowlam, of course, has no knowledge of Confederate conspiracies and is an “expert” and “useful” only in the capacity that he can recite the occasional name of a higher up in the South. This trend continues later in life when he claims that he has intimate knowledge of the Irish Fenians and their efforts to assassinate American and Canadian politicians. The officials that Cowlam reports to soon realize he has nothing worth knowing, but in the meantime he is able to run up expense items for room and board as well as receive wages for doing nothing more than sending the occasional letter and gathering information which dovetails nicely with his social life.
An 1871 article in The Savannah Daily Advertiser discussing Cowlam’s tenure as an IRS agent captured his lifelong motivation quite well: “(his) manner of doing business with his, and the Government’s victims was pretty generally known…(he) was of a speculative turn of mind, and esteemed the companionship of dollars and cents of more value than all the world besides. Nothing could wean him from his pursuit of lucre, and his ambition was to make what he could by any means possible.”
There is no romance to Charles Cowlam. He was not a Robin Hood nor, simply, a very good person or husband having been married to at least two women at the same time. (Garmon tells us that Information on marriages and divorces of the era is sparse so following his trail of bigamy was difficult.) His career in crime may have been wonderful in that it was so varied and had a number of different storylines, but Garmon’s gifts as a storyteller are greater than the grifter.
Drew Gallagher is a freelance writer residing in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He is the second-most-prolific book reviewer and first video book reviewer in the 136-year history of the Free Lance-Star Newspaper. He aspires to be the second-most-prolific book reviewer in the history of FXBG Advance.
True Gretch: What I Have Learned about Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between
By Gretchen Whitmer
Published by Simon and Schuster (July 9, 2024)
Hardcover $20.51
Audiobook $14.99
Reviewed by Vanessa Sekinger
Gretchen Whitmer, governor of Michigan, discusses her leadership style, family, and her approach to life in True Gretch: What I Have Learned about Life, Leadership, and Everything In Between. Her stories are personal, relatable, and leave readers inspired to be a happy warrior.
I came to this book after hearing Whitmer on Glennon Doyle’s podcast “We Can Do Hard Things.” She told a few of the stories in the book and some others that were not. I was struck with her ability to be genuine. She both expressed her accomplishments and her shortcomings authentically and without pretense.
Her ability to be genuine has served her well in her political career, and it comes through in True Gretch. In her book she tackles her flaws and explains the lessons she has learned. She says that Whitmers have short memories, and this has helped her not to take things personally in politics. She illustrates this point with a story of how she has handled insults (“bat shit crazy”, “that woman”, etc.) from her fellow politicians with humor. Additionally, she relays the events surrounding the plot to kidnap and kill her with a measured tone. She was obviously very concerned but did her best to remain focused on the needs of the citizens of Michigan.
I read about this plot previously, but she revealed more specific details about how organized her would be attackers were. A member of the group eventually became an informant for the FBI to stop the assassination plot. Through all of that, she led the state of Michigan and accomplished many of her political goals.
My favorite story of True Gretch starts with someone giving Gretchen advice to smile more and ends with her realizing that she wants her smile to be authentic and represent her ability to laugh at herself and the joy she feels focusing on the issues of her constituents. It also includes a lot of swearing and sharks. She even admits to getting a shark tattoo to remind herself of this belief.
She sums up her thoughts for readers into a few guiding principles. When in doubt, ask questions, don’t take everything personally, be a happy warrior, and stand in your integrity. Even if readers do not agree with her politics, it is hard to argue with her advice.
Vanessa Sekinger is the editor of the Books and Culture page and loves to read, spend time with family, laugh, and be outside.
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