Writings and Selected Narratives of the Exploration and Settlement of Virginia

Library of America #171

by John Smith

One of the truly legendary figures of American history, the soldier, explorer, and colonist Captain John Smith was a vivid and prolific chronicler of the beginnings of English settlement in the New World. This volume brings together seven of his works, along with 16 additional narratives by 13 other writers, that recount firsthand the tragic, harrowing, and dramatic events of the settlement of Roanoke and Jamestown.

A founder of Jamestown in 1607, Smith's courage, determination, and leadership proved crucial to its survival. A True Relation tells of the colony's perilous first year, while The Proceedings and The Generall Historie continue the story of its struggle to survive and prosper. A Description of New England and New Englands Trials describe Smith's exploration of the northern coast and the prospects for its settlement. In The True Travels Smith recalls his adventures as a soldier in Eastern Europe and his amazing escape from Turkish slavery. Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters, his last book, is a critical examination of the successes and failures of the English colonial enterprise. Written in a consistently lively style, Smith's works are filled with suspense, astonishment, and keen observations of American Indian cultures and New World landscapes.

The 16 additional narratives include accounts of the "Lost Colony" of Roanoke, the horrific "starving time" at Jamestown, and a shipwreck off Bermuda. Amplifying and sometimes challenging Smith's version of events, these narratives capture the fear and fascination of early encounters with the Indians; the brutality, desperation, and ingenuity of settlers facing extreme hardship; the complex interplay of feuds and rivalries, both between the English and the Powhatan Indians and within the colony itself; and the enduring story of Pocahontas, who came to occupy a unique place between two cultures. Included in the volume are 29 pages of contemporary drawings, 15 of them full-color illustrations by John White.

Genres: History, American History

1344 pages, Hardcover

Published March 22, 2007

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

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

When am I not reading this book? It seems to be opening all the time. James Horn, an accomplished historian of the seventeenth-century Chesapeake, assembled a fine and portable collection of the region's first English historian, Captain John Smith. What's more, Horn included excerpts from some of the harder-to-find works of Smith's contemporaries like William Strachey, Ralph Hamor, and Henry Spelman. In one volume, you'll find many of the core primary sources for the Virginia colony and, more importantly, for our understanding Tsenacommacah, the world of the Powhatan Indians.

I won't venture to review Smith here. But Horn's editing I pronounce superb. The book has a trusty scholarly armature, including notes to aid the reader in comprehending seventeenth-century terms and people, biographies of the selected authors, and a comprehensive timeline of events on both sides of the Atlantic during John Smith's lifetime (ca. 1580-1631).

[Shannon McNear · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great resource for anyone looking for actual accounts written by John Smith and contemporaries, rather than summaries of those accounts. Also includes accounts of the earlier expeditions to the New World, connected to the Lost Colony, 1584-90.

[Margaret Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me the better part of a year to plod through these 1,329 pages, but I am glad to have persevered. With the guidance of James Horn as its editor, the Library of America collects here the writings, drawings, and maps of men who were the first English explorers to the North American shores, plus the group of Atlantic islands now known as the Bermudas. Much of the content is about the Jamestown settlement and its spread along the James River, but also included is description of the lost colony of Roanoke Island in North Carolina, the waters and shorelines in the neighborhood of what Captain Smith named New England, and lots of opinion expressed about the native tribes found already living in these places.

The writers lived and struggled and disagreed with each other, five centuries ago. Most of them probably did the best they could in their circumstances of daily precariousness. Their compositions are dull readings to modern eyes, but their efforts were of consequence to future generations. Their humanity, both for the good and the bad, looks familiar to a reader who looks for it.

The volume is a worthy reproduction of a 500-year-old record of observations by those who were there.

[jillian (jill) B]

Title: John Smith Is Awesome
Subtitle: A elaborate fabrication of some stuff that happened to John Smith
Author: John Smith

[Glen Pekin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't finish it. Not a bad place to see what the early explorers of Virginia were actually thinking.