A Passport To Hell: The Mystery of Richard Realf

A Passport to Hell is the enigmatic story of Richard Realf, a prodigy poet published in his teens, a gifted teacher of the poor, a courageous member of John Brown's band of anti-slavery fighters, a Union Army volunteer decorated for gallantry in battle, a devoted family man, and a spellbinding temperance lecturer.He was also a drunkard and a bigamist who abandoned two wives and three children.Realf was very much a man of his time and reflected the turbulent 19th century's awakening of the common man, the championing of freedom, and the desperate search for human perfectibility. His ambiguous life is a virtual allegory of the pursuit of self-realization and the price of failing to achieve it

George Rathmell is a literary historian.