Overview

Hobomok, a Tale of Early Times launched the career of one of nineteenth-century America’s most influential writers and activists. Set during the first years of Puritan settlement, Lydia Maria Child’s debut novel centers the experiences of women under the strain of transatlantic migration, dramatizes the religious disputes that roiled the early colonies, and mythologizes settler-Indigenous relations—especially with its depiction of a marriage between its Wampanoag title character and the fictional English colonist Mary Conant, a plotline that astonished readers in 1824. Today, Hobomok commands interest both as a crucial contribution to the project of national mythmaking in early nineteenth-century American literature, and as the first work by a major but still often underappreciated nineteenth-century woman writer. This first new edition of Hobomok in nearly four decades includes an annotated text, a robust introduction to Child and her novel, and a rich array of contextual materials.

Full Product Details

Author:   Lydia Maria Child ,  Tiffany Potter
Publisher:   Broadview Press Ltd
Imprint:   Broadview Press Ltd
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 1.40cm , Length: 21.60cm
Weight:   0.500kg
ISBN:  

9781554816446

ISBN 10:   1554816440
Pages:   280
Publication Date:   31 March 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

List of IllustrationsIntroduction Lydia Maria Child Hobomok Hobomok, a Tale of Early Times. By an American.In ContextHobomok: Inspiration, Creation, and Reception from John Gorham Palfrey, “Yamoyden, a Tale of the Wars of King Philip, in Six Cantos,” The North American Review (April 1821) Letters from Lydia Maria Child to Convers Francis, 5 June 1817 and 3 February 1819 from Lydia Maria Child to Rufus Wilmot Griswold, undated, c. 1846 Reviews from The North American Review (July 1824) from The Boston Weekly Magazine, Devoted to Polite Literature, Useful Science, Biography and Dramatic Criticism (18 September 1824) from The National Gazette and Literary Register (23 April 1825) from The North American Review (1825) Colonial Accounts of the Plymouth Colony at Patuxet from Edward Winslow and William Bradford, A Relation or Journal of the Beginning and Proceedings of the English Plantation… (1622) from Edward Winslow, Good News from New-England (1624) from Susanna Bell, Legacy of a Dying Mother (1673) Indigenous Historical Accounts of the Dawnland from David Cusick, Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations (1826) from William Apess, Eulogy of King Philip (1836) from William Apess, “The Experience of Sally George,” The Experiences of Five Christian Indians… (1833) Indigenous Voices and Fictions of Indigeneity in Child’s Literary MomentIndigenous Literary Voices of the 1820s Bamewawagzhikaquay (Jane Johnston Schoolcraft), “Invocation…” (1827) Bamewawagzhikaquay (Jane Johnston Schoolcraft), “On Leaving my Children…” (1839) Henry Schoolcraft, “Free Translation” of “On Leaving my Children” (1851) William Walker Jr., “Oh Give Me Back My Bended Bow” (1882; written 1820s) Narratives of Indigeneity in the 1820s from James E. Seaver, A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison (1824) from Catherine Maria Sedgwick, Hope Leslie, or Early Times in Massachusetts (1827) Child’s Activism from Lydia Maria Child, The First Settlers of New-England… (1829) from Lydia Maria Child, An Appeal for the Indians (1868) from Lydia Maria Child, An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans (1833) from Lydia Maria Child, The Duty of Disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Act (1860) from Lydia Maria Child, “Woman’s Rights,” Letters from New-York, Letter 34 (1843)

Reviews

“Lydia Maria Child’s novel Hobomok is a fascinating read, both visionary and problematic in its depiction of the explosive effects of European settlement on Indigenous peoples of North America. Tiffany Potter’s new edition provides reviews, maps, historical documents, and—crucially—Indigenous perspectives that enable readers to appreciate the novel’s significance and moral complexity. It confirms Child as one of the foremost intellectuals of her generation, seen here at the beginning of her lifetime of political engagement. A wonderful resource for a captivating book.” — Lydia L. Moland, Colby College “Nearly 40 years after Carolyn Karcher’s groundbreaking recovery of Hobomok, this new scholarly edition of Child’s fascinating and important novel is very long overdue, and provides a valuable scholarly and historical framework essential to understanding the novel and its significance within the history of U.S. literary nationalism and the politics of race and gender more generally. Editor Tiffany Potter has performed a great service to both students and scholars of this formative era of U.S. literary history in presenting for the first time the original novel in relation to a range of historical documents that contextualize and bring into relief its many fascinating and historically significant elements. These materials, as well as the editor’s astute introduction and wealth of explanatory notes, also provide a fuller picture of the novel’s influences and reception, as well as its place within Child’s developing career as an author and activist, and within the broader project of nationalist mythmaking with which so many authors of the time were engaged. The editor strikes just the right balance in providing in-depth scholarly explanations of the relevant historical contexts but in a concise, streamlined form that will be of great use to students in the classroom, and to scholars and general readers as well.” — James Salazar, Temple University “Situating Child’s first novel within the author’s engagement with and departures from existing genres and alongside histories of her fictionalized setting, Tiffany Potter’s edition renders this still under-studied and complex novel more thoroughly comprehensible and accessible. Potter’s clear introductory framing offers a frank discussion of Child’s literary and activist career, acknowledging both her radicality for her time and her severe shortcomings as a would-be ally to Indigenous people. The supplementary materials included here add essential historical context for the novel, Child’s career, and beyond. The resources presenting Indigenous histories, personal narrative, and literature will be particularly useful for developing a more comprehensive understanding of this novel’s importance and limitations. This edition of Hobomok will serve new and familiar readers of Child’s novel for years to come.” — Brigitte Fielder, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Author Information

Tiffany Potter is Professor of Teaching in the Department of English Language and Literatures at the University of British Columbia. Her previous books include Broadview editions of Oroonoko and (with Willow White) A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison.

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