Alexander Campbell—Adventurer in Freedom: A Literary Biography

Eva Jean Wrather devoted seventy years to writing an 800,000-word biography of Alexander Campbell, founder of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a monumental literary biography described by D. Duane Cummins as a creative and skillful blend of history and superb literary writing skills.

In the early 1990s, Cummins was asked to assist Ms. Wrather in revising her manuscript. Their work together makes up Volume One of Campbell’s biography, (TCU Press, 2005).

Volume Two follows Campbell’s life from 1823?1830, years filled with the storm of opinions in the pages of his successful magazine, The Christian Baptist, which won mixed hostility and support in Baptist and Presbyterian communities. Wrather records Campbell’s experience as a politician and delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention in 1829, where Campbell brushed shoulders with some of America’s most famous politicians and rhetoricians. Wrather believed these years were a crucial chapter in Campbell’s life, confirming his power as a thinker, speaker and writer.

D. Duane Cummins has been a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University since 2002. He is a past president of Bethany College and of the Division of Higher Education of the Christian Church, and a former Darbeth-Whitten Professor of American History at Oklahoma City University. He is the author of Kenneth L. Teegarden (2007) and has published several other books with TCU Press.