I SEEK A CITY

A novel of Roger Williams which catches the spirit of the man as well as the emotional and religious problems that beset him. In the first person, Roger tells of his childhood as the son of a tradesman, with a mother who insisted on his learning a kind of shorthand, of his work and eventual turning toward the business of religion. Established at Lady Masham's home, his love for the capricious Lady Jane drove him in and out of delight, until the final break which castigated him, and which forced him into marriage with Mary. His preaching reflected his development and was the cause of his leaving for the New World, where, after a vile trip, he scorned Boston, sought security in Salem and Plymouth, and, again in answer to his speaking against magistrates and law, found himself a refugee. Fleeing deportation, he made a grim trip through the winter woods and came at last to what is now Providence. There he tried to prove his was a city of peace but white treatment of the Indians brought war to his doorstep, the burning of his city and its rebuilding. A sensitive record of the sharp and lonely way to God, this blends a certain lyricism with history and demonstrates a spiritual as well as an intellectual appeal. A Story Press Book.