JOHN ELIOT: The Man Who Loved the Indians

by Carleton Beals ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1958

There is a dearth of material on John Eliot, the English divine who came to the new world, learned the Indian language, preached, promoted funds to finance translation and printing of his Indian Bible and established communities of his converts, the Praying Indians throughout Massachusetts. The first third of the story moves sluggishly through his education in England at Jesus College, his courtship of Hannah, his wife-to-be and recruitment of the group with which he emigrated. The author does not do his material -- which is a story of unlimited dramatic potential --justice. At one point he has the wife of a sachem s?chem use the words ""blabbing about"". One does not sufficiently sense crushing conflicts, the betrayals or the vengeance inherent in the cataclysmic King Philip's War in which Eliot's Praying Indians were involved. Nor does the author's rendition agree in all details with most sources. New England book shops and libraries might still wish to add this biography -- making allowances for poetic license and the discrepancies which too often occur in historical biographies.

Pub Date: March 1, 1958

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Messner

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1958

Categories: NONFICTION