Alexander Hamilton biography to HoZ

Historical biographer Ron Chernow is to join the Head of Zeus list with his biography of American founding father Alexander Hamilton.

Neil Belton, publishing director at Head of Zeus, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights for Alexander Hamilton.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and inspiration for the musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton "rescued the most controversial founding father of the United States from obscurity", the publisher has said.

It added: "Alexander Hamilton’s story is matched only by Napoleon’s in drama and excitement. He was a bastard from the Caribbean who took America by storm: brilliant writer, revolutionary soldier, right-hand man to George Washington, coauthor of the Federalist Papers and the first Treasury Secretary of the United States. A passionate and ambitious man, he had titanic feuds with Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe and Aaron Burr and had a highly public affair with Maria Reynolds, which exposed Hamilton to excruciating ridicule. Yet he had a loving marriage to his wife Eliza, who stayed loyal to him to the very end. He died at Burr’s hands in 1804, in the most famous duel in American history.

"Hamilton shaped the newborn country in ways that are still recognizable today. He wanted a united nation with a strong central government, a formidable army and a vigorous capitalist economy. He was also an ardent abolitionist, while most of his peers among the Founding Fathers owned slaves. Hamilton lived a life of huge achievement, upward mobility and scandal."

Belton said: "America often produces enviably epic biographies. None has ever had the same effect as Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton, the basis of a hip-hop musical that has already broken all theatrical records and is set to conquer the rest of the world."

Alexander Hamilton will be published on 1st October 2016 priced as £20.