The Broadway musical Hamilton, written by and starring Lin-Manuel Miranda, is a radical reimagining of the life of founding father Alexander Hamilton and one of the most successful Broadway shows of all time: it was nominated for 16 Tony Awards, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album, received resoundingly rave reviews and is sold out for the foreseeable future. The play even saved Alexander Hamilton's portrait on the $10 bill (Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill instead).
Hamilton is based on the 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, who won the National Book Award for Nonfiction with The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance (1990) and the Pulitzer Prize for Biography with Washington: A Life (2010). Alexander Hamilton is an inspiring profile of a self-taught orphan from the Caribbean rising to first Treasury Secretary of the United States. Chernow was the historical consultant for Hamilton, and his book, a bestseller when it came out, is back in the spotlight thanks to Lin-Manuel Miranda's play. It was last published in 2005 by Penguin Books ($20, 9780143034759). --Tobias Mutter
