Bundy, Carol 1958–

PERSONAL: Born 1958; children: two sons.

ADDRESSES: Home—Cambridge, MA. Agent—Geri Thoma, Elaine Markson Agency, 44 Greenwich Ave., New York, NY 10011.

CAREER: Script writer and biographer.

WRITINGS:

The Nature of Sacrifice: A Biography of Charles Russell Lowell, Jr. (biography), Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2005.

Author of film scripts.

SIDELIGHTS: Carol Bundy became interested in her great-great-great uncle, Charles Russell Lowell, when Lowell's sword and saddlebags were discovered while clearing out the attic of the family house, and she tells his story in the biography The Nature of Sacrifice: A Biography of Charles Russell Lowell, Jr. Charles Lowell was born into one of the less-prosperous branches of the Lowell family, which wielded great wealth and power in nineteenth-century Boston. Nevertheless, he was still considered a prominent citizen and became valedictorian of his class at Harvard University. He became passionately devoted to the abolition of slavery, and helped to found one of the first regiments made up of African-American soldiers. Despite the difficulty of enduring his father's bankruptcy and his own personal struggle with tuberculosis, Lowell was quick to step forward for service when the U.S. Civil War broke out, serving in a variety of positions. Eventually he became the commander of a cavalry brigade, and he was killed in the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia.

Bundy deserves "high praise for her thoroughness, relative readability … and the admirable lack of psychobabble in her analysis of motives and relationships," commented Roland Green in Booklist. The reviewer further credited the author with creating a good collective portrait of Boston society during that era, as well as with painting a well-realized portrait of her subject. A Publishers Weekly writer praised Bundy for doing "an excellent job" of telling Lowell's story and "explaining the ethic of selfless sacrifice out of which he emerged. This in an admirable life of an admirable man."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 2005, Roland Green, review of The Nature of Sacrifice: A Biography of Charles Russell Lowell, Jr., p. 1134.

Boston Globe, April 24, 2005, Michael Kenney, review of The Nature of Sacrifice.

Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2005, review of The Nature of Sacrifice, p. 28.

Library Journal, February 1, 2005, Theresa McDevitt, review of The Nature of Sacrifice, p. 93.

Publishers Weekly, January 31, 2005, review of The Nature of Sacrifice, p. 59.

Washington Post, August 7, 2005, Edwin Yoder, review of The Nature of Sacrifice.