#Alexander Callender

[thepastisalreadywritten]

The day Princess Anne was almost kidnapped on The Mall — 50 years on

On this day 50 years ago, 23-year-old Princess Anne found herself fighting off a gunman as her bodyguard and driver lay wounded beside her. Emma Loffhagen takes a deep dive into the disturbing day one of the most senior royals was almost kidnapped.

By Emma Loffhagen

20 March 2024

“Your daughter has been kidnapped. The following are conditions to be fulfilled for release.”

In March 1974, Ian Ball used a rented typewriter to haphazardly type a letter intended for the then-head of state, Queen Elizabeth II.

Ball, 26, a funeral home worker, demanded £3 million — to be paid in £5 notes — in exchange for the return of the Queen’s daughter, Princess Anne.

After becoming fixated with the 23-year-old princess, he spent two years hatching an elaborate plan to kidnap her.

Today, March 20, marks the 50th anniversary of Ball’s kidnap attempt — one of the most bizarre and disturbing episodes in British royal history.

A “loner,” Ball had been inspired to hatch his elaborate kidnap plot by the novel Day of the Jackal.

He wanted to follow in the footsteps of the book’s hero, the contracted assassin the Jackal.

“He was a very strange man,” Ball’s neighbour later said. “The only time he ever went out was when he went down to the launderette or went out for some food.”

It was thought that he had developed a “fixation” on the royal, whipped up by the widespread and lavish coverage of her wedding to Captain Mark Phillips the previous year.

As part of his plan, Ball had moved from his run-down flat in Bayswater to a lush rented house in Fleet, Hampshire.

It was only a few miles from Sandhurst, where Anne lived with her then-husband Phillips.

After a quick phone call to the Buckingham Palace press office, Ball knew which engagements and events Anne attended each week.

He rented a car under the alias John Williams, stocking the boot with Valium tranquilisers and two pairs of handcuffs.

On the evening of 20 March 1974, Anne was travelling back to Buckingham Palace in an Austin Princess limousine.

She had attended a screening of Riding Towards Freedom, a documentary by the charity Riding for the Disabled.

Captain Phillips, her bodyguard James Beaton, and her lady-in-waiting Rowena Jane Brassey, were also in the car driven by royal chauffeur Alexander Callender.

At around 8pm, as the group drove up The Mall, a white Ford Escort swerved in front of the limousine, forcing Callender to stop.

Then a 31-year-old inspector, Beaton, who had been Anne’s bodyguard for a year, got out to investigate.

“I thought it was somebody who wanted to be a pain in the neck,” he later said. “There was no hint of what was to happen.”

Suddenly, a bearded man with light red hair jumped out of the vehicle and pulled out two handguns, smashing the passenger window with the butt of one.

Beaton had not even had the chance to pull out his weapon when he was shot in the shoulder.

He then attempted to fire back at Ball — but missed. Upon a second attempt, his gun — a Walther PPK — jammed.

Ball turned to the passenger door behind the driver’s seat and started shaking it. Anne was sat on the other side. “Open, or I’ll shoot!” he shouted.

As the princess and Captain Phillips desperately tried to hold the door closed, Anne’s lady-in-waiting crawled out of the door on the passenger side.

Beaton got back in the car, placing himself between the couple and their assailant.

Ball shot into the car, and Beaton’s hand deflected the bullet.

He shot the bodyguard a third time, hitting Beaton in the abdomen and causing him to fall from the vehicle.

“I felt tired and very drunk, although I hadn’t been drinking,” Beaton later told police. “I just wanted to lie down.”

Callender stepped out to confront the gunman, but Ball shot him in the chest and he fell back into the car.

Pulling the door open, Ball grabbed Anne’s forearm as her husband held on to her waist.

“Please, come out,” Ball reportedly told the princess. “You’ve got to come.”

As the pair struggled over Anne, her dress ripped, splitting down the back, which she later recalled prompted her to “lose her rag.”

But, rather than panic, she had what she described as a “very irritating conversation” with her potential kidnapper.

Unbelievably calm despite the commotion, Anne famously replied: “Not bloody likely!”

In an interview with the late television presenter Michael Parkinson, she recalled:

“He [the gunman] opened the door and we had a discussion about where — or where not — we were going to go.

“I said I didn’t think I wanted to go. I was scrupulously polite because I thought it would be silly to be too rude at that stage.”

A nearby tabloid journalist, Brian McConnell, arrived on the scene.

Recognising the limo’s insignia, he realised the commotion must have involved a royal family member.

“Don’t be silly, old boy,” he told Ball. “Put the gun down.”

Ball responded by shooting him too and McConnell collapsed bleeding onto the road.

A man named Ronnie Russell drove past at this point.

He was on his way home to Strood, Kent, from working as an area manager for a cleaning company in London.

In a stroke of incredible luck, Russell happened to be a former boxer. He had cut his cloth at the Repton Club in east London, an infamous venue sponsored by the notorious Kray twins.

Jumping out of the car, Russell punched Ball twice in the head before leading Anne and her lady-in-waiting away from the attacker.

He later explained that he “did not like bullies,” which prompted his decision to intervene.

Despite being injured, Ball still shot the first police officer to arrive on the scene, Constable Michael Hills, 22, before running off.

Detective Constable Peter Edmonds, who answered Constable Hills’ radio request for backup, chased Ball down The Mall and through St James’s Park before tackling him on the ground.

At Ball’s Old Bailey trial in May 1974, more details came to light about the plot.

Ball kept his head lowered for most of the proceedings, only uttering the word “guilty” to confirm the charges of attempted murder and kidnapping.

In his pocket, detectives had discovered the kidnap note addressed to the Queen, which demanded the £3 million ransom (the equivalent of £26 million today), a free pardon, and a plane to fly him to Switzerland.

He had planned to take the princess to a central London property he had rented under an alias.

In a police interview, Ball also said he believed Anne would be an easy target after ascertaining her whereabouts by phoning the Buckingham Palace press office.

“I had thought about it for years,” he said. “She would have been the easiest. I have seen her riding with her husband.”

Ball also showed no remorse for having shot three men on the night of the attempted kidnap.

“They were getting in my way so I had to shoot them,” he said. “Well, the police, that's their job. They expect to be shot. I took a chance of getting shot so why shouldn't they?”

He added: “I suppose I’ll be locked up for the rest of my life. I am only sorry I frightened Princess Anne. There is one good thing coming out of this: you will have to improve on her protection.”

Ball was diagnosed with schizophrenia following the trial and sentenced to a mental health facility under the Mental Health Act, “without limit or time."

He remains in the Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire to this day.

The facility has been home to a series of notorious criminals, including serial killer Peter Sutcliffe and London gangster Ronnie Kray.

Immediately after the attack, the royals ceased having only one protection officer.

When Anne visited Beaton in hospital, “she turned up with two policemen,” her bodyguard said. “From then on, that’s what it was.”

“I had nothing…There was no back-up vehicle,” Beaton told The Times separately.

“The training was non-existent; but then again, [we thought] nothing was going to happen. They are highly specialised now, highly trained.”

Beaton continued to work for Anne for another five years — before the Queen employed him.

After Beaton’s weapon jammed, the type of guns used by bodyguards were also changed: “The Walthers were got rid of overnight.”

Beaton was honoured for his bravery, receiving the George Cross — the UK’s highest civilian honour for gallantry.

Russell also received the honour. In a 2006 interview, Russell recalled what Queen Elizabeth said as she presented his George Medal:

“The medal is from the Queen of England, the thank you is from Anne’s mother.”

[valend]

[snacho-to-ur-nacho]

yall guess whos writing again!

some stories i *might* write (im already started on a few of these)

hamilton/ amrev:

- redcoat laurens au (british redcoats could stay in civilian houses in their stay in america, laurens is british, he 'runs away' bur not literally he just needed to get out but still writes to his family, stays with alexander who hates him, and slolwy falls in love

- a soulmate au set of oneshots

- alexnader overworking himself and slashing his wrists to stay awake through the night andnnot let washington down, too afraid of another father leaving, washington doesnt know the ammount of work tje other generals assigned him

- jamilton, handcuffed to eachother till thwy tolerate one another

-lams again but them working together and falling

- hamliza snipet, first meet, alexander being flirty

infinity alchemist:

- flowershop au

- harry potter crossover? (idk i just really see crossover potential in ia to literally any other fandom, might even do a avengers crossover for the sole sake of giving ramsay a father figure who is both an engineer, fatherly, rich, and sacrifices himself to save hundreds and whos bettwr than tony stark when it comes to this)

- c h a o s oneshots

- possible smut? ramsay pretending to forgive callum and worjing on his energy and seducing callum but sort of hate sex where ramsay just wants to make callum hurt but im not very good at writing smut so im getting help from a friend for it

legend:

- sort of idea i had of a talk between day and anden (nothign romantic) but i just added unnecessary drama to add chaos

and oneshots of eden being chaotic bc i love him

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🩵 Trans & Nonbinary Books to Watch for in 2025

🏳️‍⚧️ I'm so excited for these trans and nonbinary books that are coming out over the next few months! These stories are diverse, heartfelt, and important. Let's all support and amplify trans, nonbinary, and queer voices in 2025. 🏳️‍🌈

💜 Please remember that we see you, and love you exactly for who you are.

❓Which of these books caught your eye first?

🩷 Please help me by liking and reblogging this post to ensure it reaches people who need it now more than ever!

🩷 We Are Villains - Kacen Callender 🩵 Notes From a Regicide - Isaac R. Fellman 💜 So Many Stars - Caro De Robertis 💛 In Case You Read This - Edward Underhill 🩷 Hot Girls With Balls - Benedict Nguyễn 🩵 Glitch Girl! - Rainie Oet 💜 These Vengeful Gods - Gabe Cole Novoa 💛 A Gentleman's Gentleman - TJ Alexander 🩷 The In-Between Bookstore - Edward Underhill

🩵 My Best Friend's Honeymoon - Meryl Wilsner 💜 Costumes for Time Travelers - A.R. Capetta 💛 Paper Doll - Dylan Mulvaney 🩷 Marsha - Tourmaline 🩵 Trans History - Alex L. Combs & Andrew Eakett 💜 And They Were Roommates - Page Powars 💛 Beyond They/Them - Em Dickson & Cameron Mukwa 🩷 Stag Dance - Torrey Peters 🩵 The Build-a-Boyfriend Project - Mason Deaver

[queerliblib]

do you have books about trans men of color? Written by trans men? Asking cause I can never find books with trans people in them, let alone written by them, and it's especially hard to find books about & by trans men, especially trans moc. (Also, I've never once seen a book about a straight trans man, which idk I always feel nervous asking about cause "erm straight ppl can't be queer" or whatever but I want to see some trans het and T4T books)

Anyways, sorry for the bother but I need some new books to read and I've decided to be self indulgent this time around

oh please don’t apologize, you should absolutely be self-indulgent! these (as far as our research shows) all have trans moc main characters and are primarily by trans moc (with a few non-binary authors of color)

Freedom House by KB Brookins (poetry)

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas (YA)

Black on Both Sides: A racial history of trans identity by C. Riley Snorton (non-fiction)

We See Each Other by Tre’vell Anderson

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender (YA)

The Passing Playbook by Issac Fitzsimons (YA)

& here are a few more titles from our wishlists that we hope to buy in the future, just to give you a few more ideas

Pretty by KB Brookins (memoir)

Outside the XY by Bklyn Boihood (anthology)

Boys Run the Riot by Keito Gaku (manga)

The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar (adult fic)

as for trans het or t4t, caveat that the authors & characters here aren’t necessarily POC but I wanted to still give you a few options!

A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall (trans femme)

Chef’s Choice by TJ Alexander (t4t)

A Shot in the Dark by Victoria Lee (trans masc)

Stay Gold by Tolby McSmith (trans masc)

[lgbtqreads]

hi! i'm gradually starting to compile my anticipated releases list for 2025 and realizing that i have next to none with transmasc mcs. do you know of any coming out?

I do! The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill, Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity, ed. by Lee Mandelo, A Gentleman’s Gentleman by TJ Alexander, Hangry Hearts by Jennifer Chen (I’m pretty sure he has a POV and isn’t strictly the LI), And They Were Roommates by Page Powars, and In Case You Read This by Edward Underhill. There are also new books coming from Kacen Callender, Gabe Cole Novoa, and H.E. Edgmon, who’ve all written transmasc characters in the past, but I’m not sure how the MCs of these new books ID.

[audiodramayearbook]

Option 1's full title--

Dexter Lavery-Callender, Elisabeth Nyveen, & Alexander Cruz, October Jones & Fish with Legs

[qbdatabase]

trans male rom coms !! or any trans rom coms if there are not that many published !!! happy endings please !!!

so these might not all be romantic-comedies, but they are all Romances with a happy ending or Happily For Now, to the best of my knowledge; italicized titles are ones I've read myself and recommend as a transgender man

Contemporary Romance

(YA) Spy Stuff by Metzger, Matthew J.

Finding Your Feet by Lennox, Cass

(YA) Something Like Gravity by Smith, Amber

Don't Feed the Trolls by Kudisch, Erica (questioning masc NB)

(YA) Felix Ever After by Callender, Kacen (demiboy)

(YA) Stay Gold by McSmith, Tobly (hate crime, but happy ending)

Make a Circle by Joyce, Elliot

Cat's Got Your Heart by Zero, Jem

Life Underwater by Metzger, Matthew J.

Walking on Water by Metzger, Matthew J.

Reverb by Zabo, Anna

(YA) Meet Cute Diary by Lee, Emery

(YA) The Passing Playbook by Fitzsimons, Isaac

(YA) May the Best Man Win by Ellor, Z. R.

(YA) Jaya and Rasa: A Love Story by Patel, Sonia

(YA) A Million Quiet Revolutions by Gow, Robin (t4t)

(YA) Sharing Secrets by Metzger, Matthew J.

Coffee Boy by Chant, Austin

(YA) Rebel Boys and Rescue Dogs, or Things That Kiss with Teeth by Shrum, Brianna R.

(MG) On a Summer Night by Vidrine, Gabriel D.

Their Troublesome Crush by West, Xan

Acoustics by Price, London

(YA) The Feeling of Falling in Love by Deaver, Mason

(YA) Beating Heart Baby by Min, Lio

Welcome, Caller by Wright, M. Dean

Chef's Choice by Alexander, T. J. (t4t)

(YA) We Go Together by de Niverville, Abigail

(YA) If I Can GIve You That by Bulla, Michael Gray

(YA) Always the Almost by Underhill, Edward

A Shot in the Dark by Lee, Victoria

Historical Romance

The Companion by Ottoman, E. E. (t4t4t poly triad)

(YA) Self-Made Boys by McLemore, Anna-Marie

The Doctor's Discretion by Ottoman, E. E.

Fantasy / Sci-Fi / Paranormal Romance

(YA) The Heartbreak Bakery by Capetta, A. R. (NB x trans-masc)

(YA) Help Wanted by Emery, J. (questioning F, could be NB or ftm)

A Knight to Remember by Simkiss, Ceillie

(YA) Venom & Vow by McLemore, Anna-Marie

Mystery Romance

The Queer and the Restless by Ripper, Kris

(YA) A Fine Bromance by Moss, Christopher Hawthorne

full notes on representation and publishing info at qbdatabase.com

[victorysp]

Three young artists are awarded the Royal Award for Free Painting. King Willem-Alexander presents the award to Faria van Creij-Callender, Shivangi Kalra and Tobias Thaens. The exhibition can be visited until 10 November. October 11, 2024.

📷 Royal House of Netherlands

[shitpostingfromthebarricade]

18 and 24 for the book asks 💛

Pirates, hey!

18. How many books did you buy?

I read almost all of these books on Libby or LibriVox, actually! In total, I purchased nine of the books I read this year, though eight of them had been purchased before this year. (Couldn't find an audiobook version of The Bee Sting on any platform for free.)

24. Did you DNF anything? Why?

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender: I hated the main character and could see where the plot was going and didn't want to experience it.

Once Upon a Princess by Harper Bliss and Clare Lydon: the characters were so flat and annoying that I couldn't deal with an entire book of them being insufferable stereotypes who Aren't Like Other Girls. Also another very predictable story that I didn't feel like I needed to finish to know what would happen.

Sandman Vol 2 by Neil Gaiman: I didn't enjoy the first volume, and it didn't take long for me to find that this volume wasn't gonna be any different.

AITA?: A Modern Fairy Tale by Cassie Alexander: tbh it just. Didn't commit enough to the bit for me, in either direction. Either write a very sincere story about fucking a demon or write an absurd satire a la Chuck Tingle. This felt like a lukewarm inside joke with internet friends that got self-published on a lark.

The Ethical Slut by Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy: I probably will circle back around to this one, especially now that I've found an audiobook version of it. It was just an awful slog to read when, in the first third of it that I read, there was one (1) new-to-me idea.

A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland: I was actually really disappointed by this one because I really expected to love it (historical Sapphic selkies, hello?). Unfortunately, after getting 56% of the way through, it was just the same Historical Sapphic plotline that even SNL was able to properly make fun of. I actually might have pushed through except that there was no ongoing subplot besides Independent Lesbian Town Outcast with ex who will show up at an inopportune time x Sapphic Woman in Unhappy Marriage. Another one I may someday go back to try to finish someday but really had other books I wanted to read instead.

[octoberandfish]

OJAFWL 2.05 out now!

The Importance of Being Chirpy - Season 2, Episode 5

Set sail! Our heroes leave Herovia for new mysterious lands! Adventure and drama begin to unfold on the severely understaffed ship…

ACTORS:

Shelldon Spottingham - Tyson Fraleigh; 

Chirpy Singer - Sara Capanna; 

Duchess Antingburg - Hannah Jack Halcro; 

Mandy Mandel - Brianna Bagshaw-Stocks; 

Brody Body - Takeshi Fukushima; 

Humphrey Hummer - Aaron Feldman; 

Waspington O’Connell - Pavlo Tull; 

Fish with Legs - Zoë Bujold; 

October Jones - Erin Dunlop; 

Narrator - Elisabeth Nyveen. 

Created by Dexter Lavery-Callender, Elisabeth Nyveen, and Zoë Bujold. Written and edited by Dexter Lavery-Callender and Elisabeth Nyveen. Music by Alexander Cruz.

Visit our website at octoberandfish.ca for transcripts and bonus content! Review the show on your app of choice, and find us online @octoberandfish.

[valend]

To some extent i understand the Adamses hatred of Hamilton but it had gotten to a point where they were just saying whatever

[snacho-to-ur-nacho]

alexander hamilton and ash woods would be brothers i swear-

father left and sucks overall

mother was nice but died sick when they were around 10 ish

no other siblings (in alexanders case, no full biologocal siblings)

went through a pretty painful time through their teen years

geniuses but make the dumbest moves

will say whatever they want regardless of consequence

bold and fierce

born middle/low class but had rich lovers and worked their way up (well in ash's case it eas just a series of coincidental events and alexander actually had to laborfor years but still) to high class

curly hair??? and cute

confident and big dreams

silly

boyfriend(s) have daddy issues and a mom who died too (why is everyone killing the mother of characters what did they do???)

john laurens is like callum in the sense he is always trynna please his father and and a bit of a daddysboy (until callum ran away and all)

interested in sciences

bi (well for ash there arent any labels there but yea hes queer for sure)

chaotic

finger guns

dont like the idea of fathers bc of all the father figures who betrayed them (in ash's case, its just his father and frank BUT STILL)

finds lovers in new york

NEW ENGLAND/ NEW ANGLIA ARE THE SAME PLACE

why they arent brothers:

alexander has been dead for 200 years and ash isnt real and thwy are different races and they were born in different places but shhh that doesnt matter

@acethatwillclubyou you are the only person on this entire app who will understand my post pls

[dankusner]

Think media bias is bad now? Just ask Jefferson and Hamilton

The origins of the American press were down-and-dirty politics.

When asked by strangers what he did for a living, the poet W.H. Auden preferred to respond that he was a “medieval historian” because it “withers curiosity.”

As a newspaper editor, and particularly a newspaper editor with some charge over opinions, I have on not a few occasions been tempted to resort to the poet’s response or, better yet, to suggest I might be looking for work in, say, insurance or that I’ve recently retired from the meter-reading game.

Anything but the truth of the matter.

Because to say “newspaper editor” is, too often, an invitation for one of two responses:

the first (dull but ill-informed) being an explanation of the irrelevance of newspapers, and the second (and this I must in every social circumstance somehow escape) being an almost rabid anger at the state of the press, its naked biases, its outrageous unfairness, its obvious moral failure.

Since my employer frowns on me misrepresenting myself, and I’ve not yet summoned the inner strength to smile and slowly back away, I have had to find a way over the years to manage this second conversation.

And I have.

It’s a story.

I’m going to tell it to you here.

It begins with a name: James Thomson Callender.

Now there is a moral to this story, and I will tell you the moral first:

The history of the American press is a history of partisanship, of the most bitter kinds of political battles fought in ink, of secrets told, of lives upended, all in the name of partisan advantage.

Saving his skin

No one embodied the spirit of the original American press quite like James Thomson Callender.

Callender was a Scottish-born pamphleteer and — yes, he fits the definition — journalist who found himself in the middle of one of the most exciting periods in human history, the early days of a young republic after the American Revolution.

Here he would be at the center of American politics.

A name forgotten to many, he would ruin the political hopes of Alexander Hamilton and expose the deepest secret of Thomas Jefferson.

And he would do it by revealing the truth.

“Jefferson and Hamilton didn’t agree on much,” journalist John Dickerson wrote in Slate in 2016, “but they both hated James Thomson Callender.”

It would be nice to say Callender came to the United States for its newfound promise of freedom, but it would be more accurate to say he scurried here to save his skin, escaping the crown under charges of sedition.

His pen ran hot and, in an era when freedom of the press was still a novel idea, he had to flee Great Britain after his book The Political Progress of Britain was outlawed.

If it’s true that Callender was a drunk and a person persistently on the hunt for a little quid pro quo, it’s also fair to say that when he wrote, he was often right.

And the things he was right about were things powerful people preferred not be said.

Here is a taste of what Callender wrote that got him a one-way trip out of the British Empire:

Within the last hundred years of our history, Britain has been five times at war with France, and six times at war with Spain.

During the same period, she has been engaged in two rebellions at home, besides an endless catalogue of massacres in Asia and America. …

The persons positively destroyed must, in the whole, have exceeded twenty millions, or two hundred thousand acts of homicide per annum.

These victims have been sacrificed to the balance of power, and the balance of trade, the honour of the British flag, the universal supremacy of parliament, and the security of the Protestant succession.

Upon his arrival in the United States, Callender went about doing what he knew how to do — writing sharply partisan attacks, now targeting Federalists and the new Constitution.

Dueling papers

It’s important at this point in the story to remind those who have forgotten that, in the years of George Washington’s presidency, Hamilton and Jefferson were jockeying for power and a way to imprint, literally, their vision of the future American state.

They had sponsored rival newspapers. Hamilton was first, with the Gazette of the United States, a house organ of the Federalists that set the tone for partisan trumpeting and was a sort of de facto government paper.

In response, Jefferson and James Madison helped launch the National Gazette, offering Republican views.

Jefferson also quietly supported the work of a very sharp critic of Federalism, the newly arrived Callender, who had written for the Pennsylvania Gazette and then the Philadelphia Aurora, a mean-spirited thing founded by the grandson of Benjamin Franklin who also had Jefferson’s support.

For fans of the musical, the next part of the story is familiar.

Hamilton had an affair with a woman named Maria Reynolds.

Her husband shook Hamilton down for bribes, and Hamilton paid.

What doesn’t get covered in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s songs is that it was Callender, in his History of the United States for the Year 1796, who brought it to public light, publishing private letters wherein Hamilton confessed the affair to his own political rivals.

Hamilton had shared the letters to explain that he was paying off a blackmail, rather than engaging in illegal speculation.

And he thought that was the end of it.

But it wasn’t.

The letters made their way to Jefferson.

And ultimately they made their way to Callender and into public light.

Hamilton was ruined politically, his hopes to become president dashed.

In 1797, Hamilton wrote the Reynolds Pamphlet, lashing out at the press he had himself used to sow rumor and doubt in his own opponents.

[W]e not only hear the jacobin newspapers continually ring with odious insinuations and charges against many of our most virtuous citizens;

but, not satisfied with this, a measure new in this country has been lately adopted to give greater efficacy to the system of defamation — periodical pamphlets issue from the same presses, full freighted with misrepresentation and falsehood, artfully calculated to hold up the opponents of the Faction to the jealousy and distrust of the present generation and if possible, to transmit their names with dishonor to posterity.

A secret disclosed

Three years later, Callender was charged with sedition under the administration of President John Adams.

To the Federalists, Callender was a “miserable, ragged vagabond,” as Bruce A. Ragsdale recorded in a 2005 history prepared for the Federal Judicial Center, “The Sedition Act Trials.”

Callender was brutal to Adams in print, calling him a “hideous hermaphroditical character” among other things.

Callender was convicted and sentenced to nine months in jail, where he kept writing.

In some ways, Callender wasn’t so different from many newspaper writers today.

He moved from city to city looking for his next writing job when papers closed or funds dried up.

At the time of his conviction, he was in Virginia and writing in favor of Jefferson’s run for president.

When Jefferson won, Callender seemed to think his ship had come in.

As Dickerson wrote, “No one was more delighted than Callender that Jefferson won the election of 1800. ‘Hurraw!’ he yelped. ‘How shall I triumph over the miscreants! How, as Othello says, shall they be damned beyond all depth!’”

Callender had a history of seeking favors from Jefferson, and he seems to have felt owed for what he had done for the Republican cause and for Jefferson specifically.

In a 1797 letter to Jefferson, Callender obsequiously asked “to request your indulgence for a few moments.”

“I recollected something that dropt from you, when I had the honour of seeing you at Francis’s hotel. It related to Some assistance, in a pecuniary way, that you intended to make me,” he went on.

After Jefferson’s election, Callender wanted something bigger, a postmaster appointment that he didn’t get.

“Jefferson, who had been chatty, suddenly stopped responding to letters. Callender got antsy,” Dickerson wrote.

Like many people in Virginia and indeed in American politics, Callender was well aware of rumors that Jefferson had children by Sally Hemings, a woman he enslaved.

Hamilton had even hinted at these rumors in print years before.

But Callender, as he was wont to do, went much further.

In 1802, in a Richmond paper called the Recorder; or, Lady’s and Gentleman’s Miscellany, Callender wrote the following:

It is well known that the man, whom it delighteth the people to honor, keeps, and for many years past has kept, as his concubine, one of his own slaves.

Her name is Sally.

The name of her eldest son is Tom.

His features are said to bear a striking although sable resemblance to those of the president himself.

The boy is ten or twelve years of age.

His mother went to France in the same vessel with Mr. Jefferson and his two daughters.

The delicacy of this arrangement must strike every person of common sensibility.

What a sublime pattern for an American ambassador to place before the eyes of two young ladies!

And so it was that the rumor of Jefferson’s became public. Jefferson made no public comment. Hemings “left no known accounts,” according to historians at Monticello.

Enduring truth

Callender died less than a year after the publication.

His body was found in the James River, drowned.

He had been seen drunk the day of his death.

Through his life, Callender at many times wrote scurrilously, viciously and cruelly about his subjects.

He was not above attacking George Washington, as close to a saint as the American republic had then or now.

Meriwether Jones, a relative of Jefferson’s deceased wife, wrote to Callender that “The world hates you. Wherever your name travels, it carries with it that repulsive chill, which hurries our retreat from a vault of putrid human mortality!”

After Callender died, Jones wrote, “Let his vices repose with him in the silence and solitude of his lonely cell,” according to Anne McCrery’s account on The UncommonWealth, a blog of the Library of Virginia.

So, here we are, back to the moral of our story, with a drunk dead in a river and enmity for him in life and death.

Callender was a man of many vices, both in his personal and professional life.

His journalism, such as it was, was in service to his partisanship and his partisanship was often in service to his purse.

The decades that followed saw, slowly, imperfectly, a more professional journalism take root.

But whatever stories we have told ourselves about the press, what it is and what it should be, need to be squared against the deeper history.

The American press has always been an imperfect instrument.

The strength it has flows from the sacred freedom to ensure that the powerful cannot silence it, cannot snuff it out.

James Thomson Callender isn’t a journalist any of us in this work should ever want to be.

But if he was reviled in his own day and is more or less forgotten now, the truths he told endure still.

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🩵 Trans & Nonbinary Books to Watch for in 2025

🏳️‍⚧️ I'm so excited for these trans and nonbinary books that are coming out over the next few months! These stories are diverse, heartfelt, and important. Let's all support and amplify trans, nonbinary, and queer voices in 2025. 🏳️‍🌈

💜 Please remember that we see you, and love you exactly for who you are.

❓Which of these books caught your eye first?

🩷 Please help me by saving and sharing this post to ensure it reaches people who need it now more than ever!

🩷 We Are Villains - Kacen Callender 🩵 Notes From a Regicide - Isaac R. Fellman 💜 So Many Stars - Caro De Robertis 💛 In Case You Read This - Edward Underhill 🩷 Hot Girls With Balls - Benedict Nguyễn 🩵 Glitch Girl! - Rainie Oet 💜 These Vengeful Gods - Gabe Cole Novoa 💛 A Gentleman's Gentleman - TJ Alexander @tjalexandernyc 🩷 The In-Between Bookstore - Edward Underhill

🩵 My Best Friend's Honeymoon - Meryl Wilsner 💜 Costumes for Time Travelers - A.R. Capetta 💛 Paper Doll - Dylan Mulvaney 🩷 Marsha - Tourmaline 🩵 Trans History - Alex L. Combs & Andrew Eakett 💜 And They Were Roommates - Page Powars 💛 Beyond They/Them - Em Dickson & Cameron Mukwa 🩷 Stag Dance - Torrey Peters 🩵 The Build-a-Boyfriend Project - Mason Deaver

[read-alert]

At the start of last year, I made a "24 books I want to read in 2024" list, and I figured I'd look back at it and see how I did! I got 17/24. I still want to read the ones I didn't to though- in fact, two of them are on my January TBR!

Akata Woman by Nnedi Okorafor ✅️

The World We Make by NK Jemisin ❌️

A Chorus Rises by Bethany C Morrow ✅️

Bloodmarked by Tracy Deon ✅️

King of the Rising by Kacen Callender ✅️

The God of Lost Words by AJ Hackwith ✅️

All the Dead Things by Bear Lee ❌️

Don't Let Them Bury My Story: The Oldest Living Survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre by Viola Ford Fletcher ✅️

Teacher of the Year by MA Wardell ❌️

Godly Heathens by HE Edgmon ✅️

Year of the Tiger by Alice Wong ❌️

Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H ✅️

A Masc for Purim by Roz Alexander ✅️

To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose ❌️

Falling Back in Love with Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls by Kai Cheng Thom ✅️

Drag Me Up by RM Virtues- DNFed

Self Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix by AM McLemore ✅️

Tentacle by Rita Indiana trans by Achy Obejas ✅️

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor ❌️

Accessing the Future ed by Kathryn Allan and Djibril Al-Ayad ✅️

Off the Record by Camryn Garrett ✅️

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse ✅️

Hullmetal Girls by Emily Skrutskie ✅️

Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White ✅️