Roads Less Traveled: Visionary New England Lives by John Walters
Roads Less Traveled: Visionary New England Lives by John Walters
John Walters, the creator and former host of ‘The Front Porch’ on New Hampshire Public Radio, has published Roads Less Traveled: Visionary New England Lives.
John Walters, the creator and former host of ‘The Front Porch’ on New Hampshire Public Radio, has published Roads Less Traveled: Visionary New England Lives.
In the course of his work as a writer and radio personality, John Walters has interviewed some of the most extraordinary people in New Hampshire and Vermont. For Roads Less Traveled he has written extended profiles of some of his very favorite people.
Including:
Bob McQuillen, Peterborough, N.H.: Contra dance musician and composer, and retired teacher at Conval Regional High School in Peterborough High School.
Kate Phillips, Keene, N.H.: Hollywood actress in the 1930s and ‘40s, screenwriter for television and film. Most notable work was The Blob, the original sci-fi quickie, starring Steve McQueen. (Phillips, now deceased, was a well-known and beloved figure in the Keene State College community.)
Walters writes of brilliance, talent, dedication, and persistence; of devotion to an art, craft, a cause; or simply of a life lived long and well. He writes of people who have, quite literally, taken a road less traveled. They have pursued their own visions. Their stories testify to the breadth of human intelligence and creativity, and the indomitability of the human spirit.
John Walters is a writer, editor and radio journalist. He was the creator and host of The Front Porch, an award-winning interview show on New Hampshire Public Radio. He is a former resident of Elkins, N.H., and now lives in East Montpelier, Vt. He is the managing editor of The Bridge, a weekly newspaper, and is the 2009 winner of the Donald M. Murray Outstanding Journalism Award presented by the New Hampshire Writers’ Project.
Boy, would I like to go “point-counterpoint” with Mr. Smith. I am the author of “Year of the Hangman: George Washington’s Campaign Against the iroquois” (Westholme 2005).
The review was going fine until the last line. One has to remember the Six Nations of Iroquois were not some kind of eighteenth century Sierra Club.
Washington’s orders to Sullivan never said (as I recall) to “extirpate” the Iroquois. In fact, the primary mission was to “not merely overrun but destroy” their towns and cornfields.” this was done for three reasons.
One: After more than two years of brutal raids by pro-British Iroquois warriors against lightly defended American frontier communities, it was an effort to “chastise” or “scourge (punish) those of the Six Nations as were hostile to the United States.” The mission was also to “countenance (encourage) the friendly ones”! Nowhere did Washington order, nor at any time did Sullivan’s army engage in, the massacre or indiscriminate killing of Indian men, women and children.
Two: The raid was intended to give the pro-British Iroquois an opportunity to revert to neutrality and show their sincerity by befriending the U.S. and turning away from the Crown.
Three: Another mission, overlooked by many historians, much less historical novelists, was to force the British pay a heavy financial and logistical price for enlisting Indian allies to wage a war of terror against American frontier communities, by forcing them to support their Iroquois surrogates with an already strained supply system.
Glenn
Mr. Williams,
Thanks for your comments. I’ve ordered your book and look forward to reading it.
My novel is written from the Seneca point of view.
Some of my sources:
“Sullivan’s orders were to destroy totally the villages of the Iroquois …” Anthony F.C. Wallace, “The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca.”
Washington would “‘extirpate them from the Country.’ They were to call him ‘Town Destroyer’.” . . . (Sullivan) received formal instructions for his expedition from Washington: ‘The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements…”
Washington wrote to Lafayette on July 4, 1779 about the need to extirpate the Iroquois. From “Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution, Selected letters..” is this from Washington Sept. 30, 1779: “By my last advices from Genl. Sullivan of the 9th. Instt. I am led to conclude that ere this he has completed the entire destruction of the whole country of the Six Nations, excepting so much of it as is inhabited by the Oneidas who have always lived in amity with us.” (And dozens of Oneida braves served directly under Lafayette).
Yours,
James Herbert Smith
I thoroughly enjoyed Wah-say-lan … its an engaging read. I’m a native of the Finger Lakes region making it even better. And I learned a lot of the history of the Senecas and the Six Nations even after studying it in grade school so many decades ago.
My particular interest is in the Senecas perspective of the giving land which is mentioned often. I’m interested as I begin writing a sequel to my first novel, Twisted Vines, which takes place in the Finger Lake vineyards. In my second book I’m hoping to reflect on the Native American heritage of the vineyard lands.
My congratulations to James Herbert Smith on bringing the history of the Senecas to life, from their perspective.
Frankly, the book is a better read than I expected … and many contemporary writers could learn from James on how to write a sensuous scene. (But, what happened to that island in Canandaigua Lake?)
Many thanks, Art Maurer