Leo C. Donofrio says on his Natural Born Citizen web site that he worked with the author of Chester Alan Arthur by Greg Dehler. I found a review on Amazon.com by J. Hughes. It’s presented here as a bit of information. This writer and Donofrio agree that the Thomas C Reeves book is the definitive biography.
The author, on the staff of a small Colorado community college, presents a thinly-researched short biography, relying too heavily, as he states, on secondary sources “from Interlibrary Loan.”
Very little is presented about President Arthur’s life. Referencing the Hinman “pamphlet” (actually a book not included in the bibliography) is alluded to when briefly discussing the question on where Arthur was actually born. Too many secondary sources are referenced; not enough original work.
Careful editing is needed: some quotes are not referenced; some adverbs and adjectives don’t fit the sentence-thought; at the end of one paragraph, an unfinished sentence begins.
Julia Sand served as an encourager to President Arthur, and not as the constant critic that Professor Dehler makes her out to be. She, among others, are not listed in the book’s Index, which makes searching for information the more difficult.
Calling Arthur’s role in a major desegregation case as a “minor role,” he actually played a major role in defending the woman involved. Some of Dehler’s “facts” about this, et al, are incorrect.
At best, this is a thin biography, not carefully edited, and not well researched. It is a mostly critical treatment of Chester Arthur’s major contributions to the nation, couched in criticism. With every section that tells some of Arthur’s accomplishments, there is always the “but,” inserted. Even Arthur taking a vacation to Yellowstone Park, is presented from a critical angle, and the real purpose is left unstated.
If you’re looking for the definitive Chester Arthur, see the book by Thomas C. Reeves.
I wonder if I need a separate category just for Chester A. Arthur.
I have requested both Reeves’ biography and Hinman’s little book through interlibrary loan. They will arrive when they arrive and I’ll get to them when I can.
These folks say Arthur was born in Vermont, but that he wasn’t “Natural Born” because his father was not naturalized until 1843, making Chester a “a British Citizen by descent, and a dual citizen at birth, if not his whole life.”
http://naturalborncitizen.wordpress.com/2008/12/06/urgent-historical-breakthrough-proof-chester-arthur-concealed-he-was-a-british-subject-at-birth/
This book says he was “named after Dr. Chester Abell, a cousin of Malvina, and the doctor who performed the delivery.”
It also references the Reeves book by saying his real date of birth was not known until Reeves discovered it.
Then it states that Democrats lied about his being born in Canada claiming he wasn’t eligible under the Constitution to be President.
http://books.google.com/books?id=_v0owy-Xl4sC&pg=PA1&dq=chester+arthur+born
I write about this in my article, The Assassination of Chester A Arthur. This is a good example of the reverse logic of the nObama crowd. The argument starts with the premise that Obama must not be president, and then works its way back to create a cover up by Arthur. However the Supreme Court of New York stated in Lynch v Clarke that its opinion a person born in the United States of alien parents was eligible to be president. So why would Arthur try to cover up anything? The Reeves biography puts the one-year variation in Arthur’s birth date to vanity (the one year difference has no relevance to his father’s naturalization status when he was born, that being like 13 years later).