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August 20, 2009

Big Moxie: Benjamin Disraeli

Yes, I am a Jew. And when the ancestors of the right honourable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.

--Young MP Benjamin Disraeli, responding to a slur by Irish statesman Daniel O'Connell

He was as precocious as they come, and a comeback kid all his life. Though he had early success as a writer, he failed miserably in business. He ran for office and kept losing. As a young man, he picked ill-considered fights with the likes of the dangerously witty Irish barrister-politician Daniel O'Connell.

Finally, in 1837, he was elected to the House of Commons. But he blew his maiden speech so badly he was laughed at uproariously from beginning to end.

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Vanity Fair, 1869

A shameless self-promoter, he attracted too much attention. He shunned most men, preferring women, especially the high-born. He was Jewish, and a practicing Anglican. He dressed funny.

Mainly, Disraeli (1804–1881), the future prime minister of the UK, needed to move and get things done. Setbacks instructed--so he turned defeats into mere details in the Disraeli lore, or into triumphs.

Even the idea of practicing law, which he pursued for a while, left him feeling stale and useless. Old Izzy felt most alive when he was doing something public and difficult: "I am dying for action, and rust like a Damascus sabre in the sheath of a poltroon." Disraeli, A. Maurois (Random House 1928).

Posted by JD Hull at August 20, 2009 11:00 PM

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