Captain John Smith: A Select Edition of His Writings

Captain John Smith was one of the most insightful and colorful writers to visit America in the colonial period. While his first venture was in Virginia, some of his most important work concerned New England and the colonial enterprise as a whole.

The publication in 1986 of Philip Barbours three-volume edition of Smiths works made available the complete Smith opus. In Karen Ordahl Kuppermans new edition her intelligent and imaginative selection and thematic arrangement of Smiths most important writings will make Smith accessible to scholars, students, and general readers alike. Kuppermans introductory material and notes clarify Smiths meaning and the context in which he wrote, while the selections are large enough to allow Captain Smith to speak for himself. As a reasonably priced distillation of the best of John Smith, Kuppermans edition will allow a wide audience to discover what a remarkable thinker and writer he was.