Customer Reviews

New English Canaan by Thomas Morton of "Merrymount": Text, Notes, Biography & Criticism

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Thomas Morton's life and influence on early America is under appreciated.In a very entertaining section of the book Dempsey reveals how Morton has been received during the course of our history.Dempsey brings to life the ebullient,prickly,roguish character that Morton was.I learned a great deal about the politics of colonial religious life especially as it effected Native Americans. Of course this influence is still with us today and Dempsey's exegesis on this subject is powerful and persuasive.This book is scholarly but also lots of naughty fun.

"How did this vigorous Elizabethan, born to the "outdoors culture" of England's West Country, become America's most controversial early colonist?"

"What classical and country traditions inspired Morton's notorious New English Canaan -- a perceptive, witty, and often slapstick portrait, in prose and poetry, of Native New England peoples, land, creatures, and colonists? Was this first colonial "criminal" America's first poet in English?"

This edition was created from and textually-collated with all known copies in the world. Additionally in this book, one finds illustrations, a chronology, an introduction, a "sampler" of commentary on Morton's writing, glossary, index. Additionally, over 40 pp of bibliographic information.

Trade paperback, 411 pp.