Steve,

I'd take the Wecter biog with a heavy dose of salt, and I'd be even more
circumspect about MT's autobiographical utterances.  If you look at the
early letters, you'll see evidence to contradict many of the standard
visions of SLC's youth.  Consider, for example, the idea that Sam was lazy
and the "bad boy" of the family whereas Henry was a walking angel.  The
letters suggest a much more complicated reality, more that Henry was the
baby (i.e. pampered by contrast) and that Sam worked hard, scrupulously, and
with a sense of carrying more than his own weight as an apprentice printer.

This is a long way of saying that the MT Project letters volumes from UC
Press contain much biographical raw material and interpretation that you
might want to use as your primary biography for the early years.  I'll add a
plug, too, for Dempsey's book for the slice of life it gives; while it
doesn't profess to give a biog of SLC in Hannibal, it is scruplous in its
use of historical sources to create a picture of a significant part of SLC's
childhood environment and culture.

GC