Captain John Smith: A Select Edition of His Writings

by John Smith (Editor)

Captain John Smith was one of the most insightful and colorful writers to visit America in the colonial period. While his first venture was in Virginia, some of his most important work concerned New England and the colonial enterprise as a whole.

The publication in 1986 of Philip Barbour's three-volume edition of Smith's works made available the complete Smith opus. In Karen Ordahl Kupperman's new edition her intelligent and imaginative selection and thematic arrangement of Smith's most important writings will make Smith accessible to scholars, students, and general readers alike. Kupperman's introductory material and notes clarify Smith's meaning and the context in which he wrote, while the selections are large enough to allow Captain Smith to speak for himself. As a reasonably priced distillation of the best of John Smith, Kupperman's edition will allow a wide audience to discover what a remarkable thinker and writer he was.

Genres: History, 17th Century, United States, Travel, Biography, Memoir

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

John Smith (1580 - 1631) Admiral of New England was an English soldier, explorer, and author. He was knighted for his services to Sigismund Bathory, Prince of Transylvania and his friend Mózes Székely. He was considered to have played an important part in the establishment of the first permanent English settlement in North America. He was a leader of the Virginia Colony (based at Jamestown) between September 1608 and August 1609, and led an exploration along the rivers of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay. He was the first English explorer to map the Chesapeake Bay area and New England.

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good condensation of Smith's compete works. Bear in mind this is written in early to mid 1600's, it's nearly modern english, but not quite. The terms with slightly different meanings in the context of the times are footnoted. This is a slow read for entertainment, but an excellent read for an historical, first-person, prime source.

[Caleb Welch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt this book would have been better with more footnotes and even having a modern translation on the opposite page. There were just pints I did not understand what was going on and those small things could have fixed it. Maybe the works this book was complied from has those fixes.

[Paul Haspel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who was Captain John Smith? The question remains difficult to answer. On the one hand, any reading of his writings reveals the man's colossal ego and his unflagging gift for self-promotion. At the same time, however, the historical record indicates that Captain Smith had the courage and resourcefulness that were needed to save the Jamestown colony from the brink of ruin; on several occasions, he showed that he could walk the talk. Moreover, his writings and maps show him to have been an able explorer of the Chesapeake, and a perceptive student of the region's Algonquian nations and their languages and cultures. Whatever you may think of Captain John Smith, he continues to be a compelling figure in American history and society, and this edition of his writings (edited by colonial-America scholar Karen Ordahl Kupperman) is a good way to try to get to know the man. There is something compelling about reading Captain Smith's account of being "rescued" by Pocahontas:

...two great stones were brought before Powhatan: then as many as could layd hands on [Captain Smith], dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head, and being ready with their clubs, to beate out his braines, Pocahontas the Kings dearest daughter, when no intreaty could prevaile, got his head in her armes, and laid her owne upon his to save him from death...

Historically speaking, it may not have been a rescue at all. Rather, as Kupperman explains in a footnote, it may be that when Pocahontas shielded Captain Smith, she was actually adopting him into the Powhatan Confederacy, and Captain Smith may have been very much aware that what he was experiencing was not an execution but rather an initiation ceremony. Perhaps Captain Smith just couldn't resist jazzing up his story somewhat, for the benefit of an audience of adventure-minded 17th-century English readers. Still, whatever the realities behind that particular story may be, the reader gets a strong sense of a vital part of the American story taking shape.

Captain Smith is not just the historical figure whose statue at the Jamestown national park looks boldly out onto the James River, as if ready for new adventures; rather, he is a prime contributor to the beginnings of the idea of America. His writings on the New World not only encouraged many Englishmen to cross the Atlantic during his time, but also have contributed ever since that time to the formation and re-formation of archetypes that continue to have a powerful grip on our society, re-emerging as recently as Walt Disney Studios' Pocahontas (1995) and Terrence Malick's The New World (2005). (Unsurprisingly, the two films portray the captain differently: Mel Gibson's Captain Smith in Disney's Pocahontas is an adventure-obsessed golden boy; Colin Farrell in The New World, by contrast, portrays Captain Smith as a brooding, world-weary, Byronic figure.) Read Captain John Smith for yourself, and see who you think he was.

[Lashonda Slaughter Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good selection if you are studying the early colonial settlements.