The Pocahontas-John Smith Story

by Pocahontas Wight Edmunds

WHEN my Tales of the Virginia Coast was published in 1950 the New York Times (Book Review) page “In and Out of Books” asked the Dietz Press: “Do you really have an author named Pocahontas Wight Edmunds?” Before the printer’s ink was dry a reporter rushed in to tell him that his grandmother had that name. I hastened to write that my great-grandmother was named Pocahontas as was my mother, my niece and several cousins. Besides we had two Matoacas in our family and all of us are descendants in two lines, since first cousins married about a century ago. The name of the present first lady of Virginia is Anne Pocahontas Stanley, and Pocahontas was that of her mother. If ships, hotels, camps, counties and commercial products appropriate the name, why not descendants? To be named “Pocahontas” is to borrow glory and to attract excitement as surely as dark flannel attracts lint.

68 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1956

Reviews

[Kayla Reed · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm very disappointed!! And because it is my duty to tell you why I did or did not like a book, so you don't make the same mistake I did, my full review is posted to my blog >>> http://poeticbutterflyreview.blogspot...

[David Arnold · Rating 3 out of 5]

The reviewer Kayla gave this a 1 out of 5 because the story didn't live up to her fantasy. She says it on her blog: " Then the second half is about this John Rolfe person and Pocahontas and how the[y] got married and had children, which I knew nothing about." -- if you don't know the reality nor seem to really care about it, then what's the point? The fantasy of John Smith and Pocahontas first came in 1803 by the writer John Davis. The reality was harsh and sad whilst the fantasy makes "us" look better. The real story of John Rolfe marrying a teenage girl, and then showing her off to the elite in England as some triumph of bringing civility to savages. His first wife died after them being married about two years. Pocahontas and his third wife both lasted about three years. Of course the last one was at his death rather than hers. John Rolfe was scum who used Pocahontas as some achievement of his. Granted, the fantasy is better but John Smith and Pocahontas were never lovers.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in wake of watching the Disney movie with my daughter. I wondered how close it was to reality. Actually the truth is even more romantic and heart breaking.