George Keats of Kentucky: A Life

Crutcher has a lot going for him when it comes to writing a bio of “the other” Keats brother—he’s an exhaustive researcher, he’s already written a history of the clan (The Keats Family), and, for what it’s worth, he’s the great-great-great-grandson of his subject—but his investigation mostly turns up legal and quotidian minutiae. Nonetheless, his work is occasionally illuminating, and he provides a valuable chronology of George’s life (1797-1841). After their patriarch’s death and the ensuing chaos of executing his Dickensian estate, the Keats siblings struggled financially; George set off in 1818 to make his fortune, eventually settling and rising to prominence in Louisville, Kentucky. But what begins as a focused portrait of what some have called the “business brother” is inevitably overwhelmed by John’s affairs—after all, one of George’s goals was to make enough money to support the poet as he penned what would become canonical works of English Romanticism. Though thankfully devoid of turgid academese, this is still a work that will appeal primarily to specialized scholars. 91 color photos, 2 maps. (Nov.)