Ridge was born to a prominent Cherokee Indian family in 1827, a tumultuous and violent time when the state of Georgia was trying to impose its sovereignty on the Cherokee Nation and whites were pressing against its borders. James W. Parins places Ridge in the circle of his family and recreates the circumstances surrounding the assassination of his father (before his eyes) and his grandfather and uncle by rival Cherokees, led by John Ross. Eventful chapters portray the boy’s flight with his mother and her family to Arkansas, his classical education there, his killing of a Ross loyalist and subsequent exile in California during the gold rush, his talent as a romantic poet and author, and his career as a journalist. To the end of his life, Ridge advocated the Cherokees’ assimilation into white society.
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Book Description
John Rollin Ridge is the first full-length biography of a Cherokee whose best revenge was in writing well. A cross between Lord Byron, the romantic poet who made things happen, and Joaquin Murieta, the legendary bandit he would immortalize, John Rollin Ridge was a controversial, celebrated, and self-cast exile.
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Ridge (1827-67) was a man of contradictions, and Parins (professor of English and director of American Native Press Archives at the Univ. of Arkansas at Little Rock) makes a valiant effort to sort him out. Son and grandson of Cherokee leaders, Ridge continued his forebears' philosophy of assimilation; for him, success lay in making the transition from "a primitive aboriginal existence to a modern civilized one," as his family had done. Extremely well educated for his time and place, Ridge used the pen as his weapon. Parins analyzes his journalism, his poetry, and his best-known work--a novel about the California bandit Joaquin Murieta, with whom Ridge identified. Parins does a better job with the literary criticism than with the biography. It's only in the epilog that he begins to offer some insights into this complex man. For larger history and literature collections.
- Debbie Tucker, Cincinnati Technical Coll.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Debbie Tucker, Cincinnati Technical Coll.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Parins has done an admirable job of placing this important and enigmatic figure in his proper social, political, and historical context without simplistic or reductive explanations."—Studies in American Indian Literatures
(Studies in American Indian Literatures )"A well-researched, beautifully organized, and smoothly written biography of John Rollin Ridge. It is a memorable achievement, presenting a sharply realized characterization of this pioneer Indian writer."—New Mexico Historical Review
(New Mexico Historical Review )
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