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Devil John Wright
The extraordinary, historically accurate telling of the "Life and Times" of Devil John Wright. This is the biography, by his great, great grandson, of the man, and uniquely American legend of Devil John Wright!
65 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 25, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 8, 2014
I sought out this book when I found out from my father that we are related to John Wright; shocking to hear the news at my age that one of my aunts is John Wright's granddaughter. The name John Wright is infamous in Southwestern Virginia. There is a play performed every summer in the small town of Big Stone Gap based on the book "Trail of the Lonesome Pine" written loosely about the man and the community at the turn of the century just before the coal boom. The only other biography that I could find was written by John Wright's son and is very biased according to this author.
The author does a good job at separating the myths surrounding John Wright from the "facts" that we can link to historical documents. He received the nickname "Devil" because he was hard to shake if he decided to track you down. The author devotes a whole chapter comparing the characters in the book to the actual people they are based on. The author also admits some of the more infamous aspects that can be verified about John. For example he had long term relationships with multiple women outside his marriage and had 31 known children. Also despite being hired as a marshal at various points in his life, John was a participant in several serious feuds and conveniently declined to pursue people who were friends or members of his clan.
However the author Philip Church could have used a better editor. The information in the book is fascinating but there are numerous spelling errors and Mr Church has a habits of ending too many sentences in exclamation points. In fact every paragraph in the book ends in one!
The author does a good job at separating the myths surrounding John Wright from the "facts" that we can link to historical documents. He received the nickname "Devil" because he was hard to shake if he decided to track you down. The author devotes a whole chapter comparing the characters in the book to the actual people they are based on. The author also admits some of the more infamous aspects that can be verified about John. For example he had long term relationships with multiple women outside his marriage and had 31 known children. Also despite being hired as a marshal at various points in his life, John was a participant in several serious feuds and conveniently declined to pursue people who were friends or members of his clan.
However the author Philip Church could have used a better editor. The information in the book is fascinating but there are numerous spelling errors and Mr Church has a habits of ending too many sentences in exclamation points. In fact every paragraph in the book ends in one!
November 18, 2019
Really interesting history behind the creation of the novel The Trail of the Lonesome Pine by John Fox, Jr. My maiden name being Wright, and some of my family coming from around the area, I kinda wonder if I have any connection to the names mentioned here (I know very little about the history on that side of the family).
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews