The Strange Adventures of Jonathan Drew; A Rolling Stone, During His Travels Through Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri & Kentucky in the years 1821-24; Together with Some Account of the PEOPLE he Met, the THINGS they Did and Said, the SONGS they Sang and the ROADS they Travelled, as Taken Down by Christopher Ward, Esq., of Wilmington, Delaware. New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc.; 386 Fourth Avenue, Published in MCMXXXII. 399p.

Weary of his apprenticeship to a simple saddler, but never once thinking of running away until he is actually on the road, Jonathan Drew begins his rumbles through eleven states, covering thousands of miles, by a spur of the moment decision to join forces with a brash highwayman known only as Captain Lightning. The untimely death of the Captain leaves Jonny on his own, but never at a loss for adventure, companionship, or money. During his three years of rambling, Jonny tries his hand as a highwayman, a peddler, a manservant, a farmer, and an actor. At various intervals, he assumes the responsibilities of policing a camp meeting, retrieving a couple of runaway slaves, caring for a wife, and financing a troup of unemployed actors in a new venture. During his travels, Jonathan twice meanders into the new state of Illinois. As manservant to the rich and influential Richard Diddle of Philadelphia he follows his employer into the Illinois wilderness. They trek across southern Illinois from Vincennes to Edwardsville, sometimes camping out, sometimes finding a friendly family with which to spend the night, sometimes taking their chances among murderers and thieves. A later jaunt into the state occurs when Jonathan is hired to locate two stolen slaves and finds them in the hands of a troop of notorious outlaws holed up in Cave-In-Rock. The author claims to have read some 250 books in preparation for writing this novel, and no reader will be willing to deny the fact, for The Strange Adventures of Jonathan Drew is as thorough and meticulous a picture of pre-Jacksonian America as any history, past or present can possibly present.

Book Review Digest, 1932, p. 989-90.

Female Life Among the Mormons; A Narrative of Many Years' Personal Experience by the Wife of a Mormon Elder, Recently from Utah. New York: J. C. Derby, 119 Nassau Street; Cincinnati: H. W. Derby; Buffalo: Wanzer McKim & Co.; Chicago: D. B. Cooke & Co.; Detroit: Kerr Morley & Co.; St. Louis: Edwards & Bushnell, 1855. 449p.

Although expressly written as a narrative to enlighten the public and warn against the alleged evils of Mormonism, this book has been classified as fiction. The story basically follows the Mormon migration from New York to Utah, but the author makes little effort to include significant events in Mormon history, and those which are mentioned in the eighty-odd pages covering the Mormon sojourn in Illinois tend to be vague and inaccurate. The story is primarily concerned with extravagant tales of villainy particularly against women. Mrs. Ward's marriage and subsequent travels with the Mormons appear to be fabrications designed to provide a soapbox for her use in expressing her views.

Western Emigration; Narrative of a Tour to, & One Year's Residence in "Edensburgh," (Illinois), by Major Walter Wilkey, [pseud.] An honest Yoeman of Mooseboro', State of Maine. A more humorsome and interesting Traveller's Guide to the West, "was never before published, and by which it will be perceived that the famous Maine-Pine-Swamp Speculation" has been completely out-done! Embellished with Appropriate Cuts...New York: G. Clairborne, and Others, Publishers, 1839. 24p.

A quaint example of humorous writing from the first half of the nineteenth century, Western Emigration satirizes the western land boom. Several cartoon-like prints add to the droll effect. Major Wilkins and his family are bamboozled by a real estate shark who trades a "first rate Illinois farm of 300 acres" plus ''twenty valuable house lots if Edensburgh'' for the Wilkins' well established farm home in Maine. After the effrontery of a miserable trip west the family is staggered to find that Edensburgh is virtually non-existent, the 300 acres cannot be found, and their only shelter is a rude log hotel with blankets for walls and dirt on the floor deep enough to require a hoe.

The Captain, by Churchill Williams. Author of "J. Devlin-Boss." Illustrated by Arthur I. Keller. Boston: Lothrop Publishing Company, [1903.] 439p.

David Ford, the central figure in a tale which seems influenced more by his friend, The Captain, than by David himself, grows up in pre-Civil War Missouri where slavery is practiced, but Abolitionist sentiment runs high. When the election of Lincoln to the presidency divides the North from the South, David fights a fierce inner battle pitting tradition against ethics, but eventually joins The Captain in Galena, Illinois, and shares his fortune through most of the war. Although never once mentioned by name, The Captain is Ulysses S. Grant, and the story is his despite the author's emphasis on another. The major theme of the novel is the irreconcilable ideologies of North and South which lead to hostilities.

Chautauquan, 4/1903, p. 110. Dial, 6/1/1903, p. 376. Independent, 3/26/1903, p. 739-40. N. Y. Times Book Review, 2/14/1903, p. 99.

Swift Walker; A True Story of the American Fur Trade, by Winifred E. Wise. Author of "Jane Addams of Hull-House." Illustrated by Cameron Wright. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, [1937.] 288p.

A fictionalized biography of the life of Gordon S. Hubbard, Superintendent of the Illinois River Trading Posts of John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company, Swift Walker adheres closely to the details of Hubbard's own descriptions of his adventures. Starting in 1816, when Hubbard is a lad in Montreal, the narrative follows him to his death in 1886, although concentrating on his youth and young manhood. His early adventures with the American Fur Company, his marriage to an Indian maid, his rise to the district superintendency in the company, the decline of the fur trade in Illinois, and the eventual launching of his own business are all here; however, a far more detailed novel covering the same subject is Hubbard's Trail, by Alfred Hubbard Holt.

Book Review Digest, 1937, p. 1064.

Lincoln's First Love, A True Story by Carrie Douglas Wright. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., [1901.] 47p.

The Ann Rutledge-Abraham Lincoln legend is reiterated in detail as it was told to the author by Mrs. Samuel Hill, a former resident of New Salem, and friend of the Rutledges and Lincoln. Although sketchy, sentimentalized, and tempered by time and memory, the story gives insight into Ann Rutledge's character and a contemporary view of life in New Salem as known by Lincoln in the early 1830s.

A Saga of the Prairies, [by] H. P. Wright. Kansas City, Missouri: Brown White Lowell Press, 1945. 148p.

Hard-working, God-fearing Andrew and Martha Choate and their daughter, six-year-old Evangeline, are happy and prosperous as the first white settlers in the Indian territory of northwestern Illinois. Evangeline, adored throughout her childhood and youth, incurs her father's wrath when she returns pregnant from a year at a respectable Baptist female seminary. Refusing to divulge the father's name, she is forbidden all further contact with her parents. Many years later, the mysterious paternity is explained (though not at all adequately for even the least critical reader), and a reconciliation between all remaining family members takes place. Mr. Wright's novel is apparently a product of his sincere desire to preserve pioneer tales heard from his father. Unfortunately, this unusually sentimental work displays a plot so faulty that the interesting anecdotal material seems a meager reward to the reader.

The Corinthians, A Novel by Nicholas E. Wyckoff. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1960. 293p.

The rush of settlers to claim the lush prairie land of central Illinois, the growth of commerce around Nauvoo, political discord in the young state, and the Mormon tragedy in 1846 form a carefully documented backdrop for this novel which explores the doctrines of two conflicting religions, examines attitudes which influenced history, and recounts a troubled era in Illinois development. When Simon Weddle, a staunch Disciple of Christ, rents some farm land to a band of Mormons migrating westward, he leaves himself open to severe criticism from neighbors and friends. But Simon is impressed with the Mormons' zeal for life and religion, and is gradually indoctrinated with the Mormon creed. Especially convenient is the Mormon belief concerning marriage, which permits Weddle to choose a second, fruitful wife after his first has proven barren. The Corinthians is a competently told story depicting an agonizing but exciting era in Illinois history.

Book Review Digest, 1961, p. 1572-3.

This Land Is Ours, by Louis Zara. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company; The Riverside Press Cambridge, 1940. 779p.

See No. 76.