Via Dan Kennedy, the NYT has a largely positive review of the new “John Hancock: First to Sign, First to Invest in America’s Independence,” by historian Willard Sterne Randall. It’ll be on my reading list soon. … But what I found equally interesting was Dan’s recollection of local historian Bill Fowler’s long-ago biography of Hancock, ‘The Baron of Beacon Hill,’ which also sounds enticing. But not at $286.80 for a hardcover copy. Maybe a lower-priced copy will pop up somewhere.