Customer Reviews

The Francis Parkman Reader

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For those of us who have known, admired, and loved the historical writings of Samuel Eliot Morison, this book is a special gift. Morison, an inspirational historian of exploration and naval warfare, provides us a very personal introduction to his own teacher and inspiration, Francis Parkman.

Parkman, born in Boston on September 16, 1823, was the fortunate son of a famous New England family that had arrived in the New World with the first wave of Puritan settlements. They managed their rise through trade and the church. Known to his friends as Frank, Parkman spent his summers in the woods near Medford exploring, studying, and conjuring.

Here he developed a lifelong affection for the outdoors and a pragmatic appreciation of the influence of geography on human affairs. He spent the summer of his freshmen year at Harvard College wandering the woods, reading and dreaming of Indians and the native civilizations that thrived and warred in the twilight before Europeans transformed North America.

When he graduated with his class in 1844 he had developed a reputation as a vigorous outdoorsman. He studied by candlelight in the early hours to make the most of daylight outdoors. He was a crack shot with a rifle and his endurance in cross-country excursions was legendary. He learned to live off trout and moose meat and once spend three days shivering in a constant rain after his hand-made bark canoe disintegrated in the rapids of the Magalloway river.

Late in his college career he developed a crippling neurological malady. He began to suffer terrible headaches, insomnia, and semi-blindness which he personified as "the Enemy." The Enemy would dog him for the remainder of his life. The headaches and blindness would make light unbearable and loud noise excruciating. The illness frequently created an enervating condition which, for others, would have made reading and writing impossible.

But Parkman overcame. He arranged that his historical research would be collected and read to him aloud. Like Churchill, he processed this material, composed his prose in his head, and often wrote through an amanuesis. When no help was available, he composed in the dark using a writing board equipped with a horizontal rule that enabled him to produce legible longhand. Parkman's love of the outdoors and his personal philosophy of history demanded that he visit every scene of interest. Despite his illness, Parkman personally walked each inch of the terrain that figured in his texts.

In his adult life, Parkman was not only an eminent and influential historian; his métier also encompassed horticulture. In an era when horticulture was respected as an arm of the natural sciences, he distinguished himself through the collection and cultivation of thousands of varieties of roses: he won prizes and wrote books on this subject as well. It was this gardening life that often brought him great comfort from his physical ailment.

Rather than settle into a respectable life's work, one involving, say, the study of ancient or continental history, Parkman chose to examine the conflict between England and France in the New World. Worse still, he was interested in Indians, their role in these wars, and the results on Indian civilization. Even worse, he loved forests, mountains, valleys, and sounds.

Fortunately for us, the results were spectacular. Over the course of a productive life (Parkman died in 1893 after a bout of pleurisy and phlebitis) and despite constant battle with his Enemy, Parkman produced a series of monumental histories.

Among other works, his masterpiece, France and England in North America, is surely among the most impressive of works by any American historian. Its magnitude alone - six books, most of which are multiple volumes - is simply the most thorough history available of early North America. However, it is Parkman's sensitivity, attention to detail, and critical faculties that make this work a history in the finest tradition of Herodotus. Moreover, Parkman's talents as a writer are formidable. His prose is vivid and (hundreds of years later) fresh and lively.

All of Parkman's works are out of print: most are unavailable to non-collectors. For those interested in Parkman's research and ideas, Morison's volume is therefore essential. Morison excerpts content from France and England in North America for our benefit and pleasure. And Morison makes a splendid cicerone. A master of the historian's trade, he understands the burdens of the research and writing, which Parkman bore under the most challenging of conditions. Morison's affection and awe at Parkman's work are apparent in his introduction, commentaries, and selections. Consequently, this volume is both a delight to read and a touching monument to a beloved teacher.

All Parkman's books are so good you never want them to end. The strange people and happenings have entertainment value that rivals Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' but is all well documented history.