Genius of Place by Justin Martin

Justin Martin's latest is A Fierce Glory, out in September (Da Capo Press). This is a group biography treatment of Antietam, the Civil War's pivotal battle, still America's single bloodiest day. The rich cast includes: Robert E. Lee, pioneering war photographer Alexander Gardner, and Jonathan Letterman, the father of battlefield medicine. Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation are woven into this account far more than in a typical military history of Antietam. Martin's specialty is American history, meticulously researched, but delivered in a narrative style that’s akin to fiction. His previous book is Rebel Souls: Walt Whitman and America’s First Bohemians (Da Capo, 2014) about a decadent and incredibly influential artists’ circle that hung out at Pfaff’s saloon in NYC during the 1850s. Among its members: a young Walt Whitman; Artemus Ward, America’s first standup comic; psychedelic drug pioneer Fitz Hugh Ludlow; and Adah Isaacs Menken, an actress notorious for her "Naked Lady" act. Earlier efforts includes biographies of pioneering landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, and Ralph Nader, the noted consumer advocate. Martin's articles have appeared in a variety of publications including the New York Times, Newsweek, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Martin is a 1987 graduate of Rice University in Houston, Texas. He lives with his wife and twin sons in Forest Hills Gardens, New York, a landmark neighborhood designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. In his spare time, Martin runs marathons (he's completed seven) and gardens (he's grown some great tomatoes, but his experiments in urban corn-growing have so far failed).