Author Description

This anthology is the first collection of writings of whites about Indians. The selections -- fictional, poetic, descriptive, and polemical -- reveal much about the hopes, fears, vices and virtues of Americans, from 1624 to 1884. In chronological order, Cotton Mather's view of the Indian as demonic adversary follows William Penn's pacifist plea for fairness to America's native dwellers; Margaret Fuller's sympathetic description of Indian women precedes Mark Twain's contemptuous remarks about the "silent, sneaking, treacherous" tribe he encountered. Major American writers are presented next to little-known authors; excerpts from forgotten plays and novels offer telling images of the Indian and fill out the skeleton of American literary history. Each of the book's two sections is preceded by a comprehensive introduction providing historical and cultural background, including an introduction to each writer and the larger work from which the piece is taken. -- book jacket.