Scott,

Thank you for the notification on the book. I had not heard about that one. I was told a year ago or so that Nicole Etcheson might be putting together a biography on Lane. I have not heard any confirmation about that.

My work is not a true biography. Instead it is an analysis of his political and social ideologies and principles from 1854 to 1866. He's a pretty complicated man, and he did not leave any single collection of papers, so the task of piecing it all together has been interesting.

As for "emotional baggage" in the Kansas-Missouri region, I suppose that is the case with some. I never paid much attention to it. I'm from Kansas originally, but did not get interested in Lane until I had moved away. I chose him as a dissertation topic because he was particularly controversial and because of the wide disparity of attitudes towards him. He really seemed fascinating. Looking into the matter further, I wasn't satisfied with many of the summaries historians have given him in their larger studies. So, I decided to see just what was behind the man.

I've got a rough, rough draft completed and being reviewed by a couple of my committee members. Hopefully the edits and revisions won't take more than a couple of months and I will have it done (and the degree) by August. Then comes the matter of revising it for popular publication.