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The Family Legacy of Henry Clay: In the Shadow of a Kentucky Patriarch. By Lindsey Apple. Topics in Kentucky History. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, c. 201 1. Pp. [xxii], 340. $35.00, ISBN 978-0-8131-3410-9.)
In this aptly titled volume, Lindsey Apple offers a fresh perspective on the life and legacy of a much-studied man. Henry Clay's long and distinguished political career recedes into the background in this carefully researched account of generations of Clays from the early nineteenth century to the present day.
Clay and his wife, Lucretia Hart Clay, were the parents of eleven children, a large family even by early-nineteenth-century standards. It is not surprising, then, that despite his frequent and prolonged absences from Ashland, his Lexington, Kentucky, estate, Clay expended ample time and energy coordinating the affairs of his children. In fact, after reading Apple's account of Clay's extensive involvement with his large brood, readers may well wonder how he had time to attend to the affairs of the nation.
Apple shows that Clay was as...