This brief life-and-times biography of Theodore O'Hara, famous for his two elegiac poems, "The Old Pioneer" and "The Bivouac of the Dead," provides more times than life in setting the man and his poetry in the context of a Kentucky upbringing and politics, the practice of law and political journalism in the Jacksonian era, filibustering expeditions against Cuba, the Mexican War, and the Civil War. Authors Hughes (Bentonville, Univ. of North Carolina, 1996) and Ware devote special attention to the place of "The Bivouac of the Dead" in American wartime memorials and American letters and strain to resurrect the poet's reputation in the process. Readers will find the material on American intrigues against Cuba and on political journalism most useful, but much of the biographical material is unremarkable or speculative. While the book is sometimes thin, it is the only comprehensive study available on this poet, who remains an obscure figure, even as his poem lives on. Recommended for academic libraries only.--Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia
