In the Mohawk Valley during the colonial period, Sir William Johnson struggles to create an America where the settlers and the Native Americans can live together in harmony. Reprint. K. PW.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In Moss's vibrant docu-novel, the American colonial frontier is aflame during the 1700s as imperial rivalry pits colonists against British and French armies and their Indian allies. This follow-up to Fire Along the Sky tells the fictionalized story of the real-life Sir William Johnson, an Irish immigrant who settled in New York's Mohawk Valley to earn his fortune and became the only white chief (the "Firekeeper") of the Iroquois of the Six Nations. In Moss's politically correct account, "Billy" is depicted as a high-spirited rake, a shrewd but honest businessman and the only white man the Indians trust. Seeing the treacherous efforts of both French and British efforts to steal Indian lands, Johnson fights colonial corruption and duplicity to defend the Six Nations from the white man's menace. When the French and Indian War erupts in 1756 and the valleys of the frontier burn and bleed from raids and ambushes, his leadership and influence keep the Six Nations firmly on the British side; eventually, the Indians join his militia in the assault against the French fort at Crown Point during the Battle of Lake George. Surrounding Johnson are such colorful historical figures as Ben Franklin, George Washington and the hapless General Braddock, all carefully woven into the narrative. Moss, who is perhaps best known for his suspense novels (Moscow Rules, etc.), backs his vigorous adventure story with detailed research, summarized in extensive source notes. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
With this novel set in Colonial America, Moss, author of several best-selling Cold War thrillers (e.g., Carnival of Spies, LJ 5/15/87), performs the literary equivalent of beating swords into plowshares.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
Robert Moss is the pioneer of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of shamanism and modern dreamwork. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming and a lively online dream school. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His eight books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Three "Only" Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence and Imagination, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates and Active Dreaming: Journeying beyond Self-Limitation to a Life of Wild Freedom.
Moss describes himself as "a dream teacher, on a path for which there has been no career track in our culture." He identifies the great watershed in his adult life as a sequence of visionary events that unfolded in 1987-1988, after he decided to leave the world of big cities and the fast-track life of a popular novelist (already the author of four New York Times bestsellers, including Moscow Rules) and put down roots on a farm in the upper Hudson Valley of New York. Moss started dreaming in a language he did not know that proved to be an archaic form of the Mohawk language. Helped by native speakers to interpret his dreams, Moss came to believe that they had put him in touch with an ancient healer - a woman of power - and that they were calling him to a different life.
Out of these experiences he wrote a series of historical novels (The Firekeeper, Fire Along the Sky, The Interpreter) and developed the practice he calls Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of contemporary dreamwork and shamanic methods of journeying and healing. A central premise of Moss's approach is that dreaming isn't just what happens during sleep; dreaming is waking up to sources of guidance, healing and creativity beyond the reach of the everyday mind.He introduced his method to an international audience as an invited presenter at the conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams at the University of Leiden in 1994.
Core techniques of Active Dreaming include
The "lightning dreamwork" process, designed to facilitate quick dream-sharing that results in helpful action; the use of the "if it were my dream" protocol encourages the understanding that the dreamer is always the final authority on his or her dream
Dream reentry: the practice of making a conscious journey back inside a dream in order to clarify information, dialogue with a dream character, or move beyond nightmare terrors into healing and resolution
Tracking and group dreaming: conscious dream travel on an agreed itinerary by two or more partners, often supported by shamanic drumming
Navigating by synchronicity: reading coincidence and "symbolic pop-ups" in ordinary life as "everyday oracles".
Moss describes himself as "a dream teacher, on a path for which there has been no career track in our culture." He identifies the great watershed in his adult life as a sequence of visionary events that unfolded in 1987-1988, after he decided to leave the world of big cities and the fast-track life of a popular novelist (already the author of four New York Times bestsellers, including Moscow Rules) and put down roots on a farm in the upper Hudson Valley of New York. Moss started dreaming in a language he did not know that proved to be an archaic form of the Mohawk language. Helped by native speakers to interpret his dreams, Moss came to believe that they had put him in touch with an ancient healer - a woman of power - and that they were calling him to a different life.
Out of these experiences he wrote a series of historical novels (The Firekeeper, Fire Along the Sky, The Interpreter) and developed the practice he calls Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of contemporary dreamwork and shamanic methods of journeying and healing. A central premise of Moss's approach is that dreaming isn't just what happens during sleep; dreaming is waking up to sources of guidance, healing and creativity beyond the reach of the everyday mind.He introduced his method to an international audience as an invited presenter at the conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams at the University of Leiden in 1994.
Core techniques of Active Dreaming include
The "lightning dreamwork" process, designed to facilitate quick dream-sharing that results in helpful action; the use of the "if it were my dream" protocol encourages the understanding that the dreamer is always the final authority on his or her dream
Dream reentry: the practice of making a conscious journey back inside a dream in order to clarify information, dialogue with a dream character, or move beyond nightmare terrors into healing and resolution
Tracking and group dreaming: conscious dream travel on an agreed itinerary by two or more partners, often supported by shamanic drumming
Navigating by synchronicity: reading coincidence and "symbolic pop-ups" in ordinary life as "everyday oracles".
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Firekeeper is a riveting blend of history, adventure and dream wisdom,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Firekeeper: A Narrative of the Eastern Frontier (Mass Market Paperback)
The Firekeeper is an evocative romp of a tale, spanning the eighteenth century from Ireland to New England. It gives both Native American and White perspectives, showing how the two cultures intertwined and clashed in rich and heartbreaking human drama. Moss creates a colorful, vivid portrait of Sir William Johnson (a multitudinous man in every sense of the word), and describes the hardships endured by women on the frontier with sensitivity and realism.I was completely drawn into the narrative, feeling myself there in direct experience. I loved the novel and was sorry when it ended. I came to The Firekeeper after reading Moss' later books on dreaming, all of which I highly recommend. I was so impressed with Dreamways of the Iroquois and its story of Island Woman, that it led me to seek out Firekeeper. Now at the top of my book stack are The Interpreter and Fire Along the Sky. In my experience as a reader, Robert Moss is an unusually talented author. His skills as a historian, researcher, storyteller, writer, teacher, dreamer, and healer combine to create books that are both a delight to read and a necessity for our times.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dreams Along the Mohawk,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Firekeeper: A Narrative of the Eastern Frontier (Mass Market Paperback)
A wonderful book by a singularly marvellous author! The best two books (along with FIRE ALONG THE SKY) I've read in years. As rich as any historical novel ever written. Travel to a vanished world in upstate New York for a few hours. And discover that Colonial America was a vibrant and violent time. America's first frontier--Too bad it's overshadowed by our preoccupation with the 19th-century Western mythology. The 18th century was far more fascinating!
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE FIREKEEPER is "the dream" of Sir William Johnson by Wanda Burch, author of SHE WHO DREAMS, www.wandaburch.com,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Firekeeper: A Narrative of the Eastern Frontier (Mass Market Paperback)
In the dry, often dull, pages of thousands of eighteenth century documents, the researcher and student of history meets--in his or her studies of upstate New York--the names of characters who shaped the cultural and geographic boundaries of the lands bordering and expanding beyond the Mohawk River into the thick forests of the eighteenth century western frontier. Principal among those names is that of Sir William Johnson and his intricately woven web of clients, agents, military personnel, merchants, commissaries, politicians, tenants, and tradesmen, all backdropped against the powerful confederacy of the Six Nations. In THE FIREKEEPER, Robert Moss plunges beneath the carefully penned words of conferences, negotiations, land deals, and the giving and receiving of thousands of belts and strings of wampum and chests of gifts to find the phrase, the inuendo, the pause, the missing sentence that allows one to grasp the beauty and power of the raw courage, stamina, and charisma of the men and women who were the real heroes of the New York frontier. William Johnson held the legal responsibility for the negotiation of Indian affairs for the Six Nations and proved the extraordinary confidence and credit in which he was held by the Six Nations in his care and use of the magnificent symbols of Indian power and authority--the belts, the sacred calumets, and the dreams. In the dreaming culture of the Six Nations, William Johnson was caught up in a delicate balance between the magical world of spirit and soul in which he donned the antlers of the forest stag and the competitive white world where wills and cultures clashed in battle and on paper.Woven in and among the threads of the fascinating story of THE FIREKEEPER is the even more powerful story of the women in William Johnson's world--the young Palatine girl who pursued her dreams across the sea from bondage to the purchased freedom of a frontier pulsing with the clash of desire and spirit, of the fusing of the sacred and profane in a forest peopled with refugees from her own country and with the magical dreaming women of power of the Six Nations, of the Mohawks, women with names like Island Woman and Sparrow, all of whom would share in the romance and spirit of William Johnson's world, molded from the dreams of many cultures, a magical journey of spirit and soul brought to life by Robert Moss through the pages of THE FIREKEEPER.
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