Grant's Indian is a novel based on the life of Ely Parker, a Seneca Indian who, as Grant's military secretary, penned the surrender at Appomattox. From Appomattox, the story loops back to Parker as an Indian boy in upstate New York, his youth as tribal translator and diplomat and his meeting "Useless" Ulysses Grant in a barroom in Galena, Illinois. After Appomattox, Parker marries a white girl half his age, becomes commissioner of Indian affairs, resigns in disgrace, makes and loses a fortune on Wall Street and spends his last twenty years as a clerk in the New York City Police Department. Parker is an American Indian becoming an American, whose quest gets him into all sorts of trouble, including his comic-opera wedding, which he misses once by getting drunk and throwing himself into the Potomac. He dons successive careers, succeeding inwardly (while his outer success fades) through his young wife's urging him not to be an Indian or a white, "Just be a man!"
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About the Author
PETER JOHNSON is an award-winning author, actor and lawyer. A graduate of Harvard and New York Law School, he has written many legal articles, including "Can You Quote Donald Duck? Intellectual Property in Cyberculture" and "Pornography Drives Technology: Why Not to Censor the Internet." A professional stage and voice-over actor, he has performed plays in New York and nationwide and narrated over 500 audiobooks. Grant's Indian is his first novel. He lives in New York City.
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More About the Author
PETER JOHNSON is an award-winning author, actor and lawyer. A graduate of Harvard and New York Law School, he has written many legal articles, including "Can You Quote Donald Duck? Intellectual Property in Cyberculture" and "Pornography Drives Technology: Why Not to Censor the Internet." A professional stage and voice-over actor, he has performed plays in New York and nationwide and narrated over 500 audiobooks. Grant's Indian is his first novel. He lives in New York City.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Grant's Indian,
This review is from: Grant's Indian (Paperback)
I just finished Peter Johnson's book -- I absolutely loved it! I started it only two days ago and could hardly put it down. Ely Parker is a wonderful character and provides a fascinating perspective on American life throughout the 19th century, an era so rich in change and growth and the historical figures and events that we've all heard about, but in this book they're all alive and real. What an accomplished writer Johnson is! I really enjoyed the time I spent in the worlds he created: Indian and White, East and West, war and peace, political and industrial, rural and urban, personal and national, decade after decade, progress and decline. My only regret is that I suspect the author isn't going to turn out a book every year -- this is obviously the product of years of hard work. But I want more and impatiently await the publication of his next novel.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intelligent and entertaining historical fiction,
This review is from: Grant's Indian (Paperback)
Grant's Indian, by Peter Johnson, follows the life of Seneca Indian Ely Parker through the rich and turbulent period of mid to late 19th century American history: from the boom of towns in the East and the stifling bureaucracy of Washington, to the decimating battles of North vs. South in the Civil War, and to the grasping westward expansion of the white man that inevitably forced the Indians of the Great Plains onto reservations. Engaging from the first page to the very last, Grant's Indian brims with memorable characters, entertaining dialogue and an unlikely love story that is sure to enthrall.
Ely Parker emerges from his Seneca roots in upstate New York as a young man determined to learn the white man's tongue. Very soon, he is sent as a translator for his tribe to Washington, where he quickly learns the futility of the crawling pace of government, yet still manages to delay the loss of his tribal lands by greedy land companies. Never idle, Parker gradually rises from ditch-digger, to engineer, to army general. Parker `s relationship with Grant is the keystone to much of this story, as it carries both men from the battlefield, to Lee's surrender at Appomattox, to the convoluted inner workings of government and diplomacy. Although Parker may never have risen to the level of professional success that he did without Grant's patronage, one also wonders who Grant might have relied upon if Parker had not been so faithfully at his side at critical times. Throughout his life, Parker accomplishes much, despite the limitations imposed on him by an often intolerant majority. An unexpected gift in this story is the arrival of the precocious and charming Minnie Sackett, who challenges Parker with her lightning wit and outspoken nature. Less than half his age when they first meet, Minnie captures Parker's attentions. Their engagement becomes a scandal among the social elite and a source of media fascination. Ultimately, it is Minnie who gives Parker's life dimensions beyond his professional accomplishments and Minnie whose wisdom rescues him from despair. Grant's Indian is an absorbing and well-told story that reaches beyond the rote repetition of historical dates and events to a more human level. Although Johnson leaves no doubt as to how thoroughly researched the background for this story was, it is never bogged down with dry, unrelatable details. If U.S. History classes were taught with half as much realism and energy as is found in Grant's Indian, more people would take an interest in America's past and have a far better understanding of it. Grant's Indian should be a recommended read, not just for those who have an interest in the Civil War era, but for anyone who seeks a deeper understanding of the foundation on which America was built.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Grant's Indian,
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This review is from: Grant's Indian (Paperback)
To begin with, one is transported by a marvelously vivid description of the surrender at Appomattox. So filled with nuance and rich detail was this first chapter that I feared the pace could not be maintained. It was. this biographical novel detailing the life and times of Ely Parker never falters. While Parker is most famous as a footnote at the end of the war for his small part in copying the final draft of the surrender agreement, one learns form reading Grant's Indian, that he was a great deal more. He was an intreguing renaaissance man; diplomat, soldier, public servant and first and foremost, and Indian chief. In short this book left me wanting only one thing: more
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