Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Independence Day - "Early Thunder"

Front of dust cover to my copy of the book (hb).

Completing this book, Early Thunder by Jean Fritz, on  Wednesday July 4th (Independence Day) was quite appropriate.

From the inside front dust jacket:
"The time is 1775, when early thunder rumbled over Massachusetts, thunder before the coming storm of the Revolutionary War. The place is Salem - for a brief strategic period the capital of the colony. The  hero is fourteen-year-old Daniel West - a boy with a decision to make.
"Tough he was a dedicated Tory, Daniel hated the growing violence of the Whig-Tory conflict which split Salem and its people. He despised the rowdy Liberty Boys creeping up to Tory porches with their "Liberty Gifts" - buckets of garbage. 
"Yet as the year went by, the events that were shaping a new nation reached relentlessly into every corner of Daniel"s life. England disappointed him. His father disappointed him. Then, on a night when Salem went wild, Daniel disappointed himself. 
"Daniel's struggle to find his place, a stand he could take proudly, is resolved in a confrontation between the British troops and the townspeople - a true incident that nearly started the war. This is the first time in children's fiction that the events of this decisive year in Salem have been chronicled in such detail. The result is a real and engrossing novel of a boy's year of decision which has special significance for today."
I found this book at a used book sale in May. I bought it because it is illustrated by Lynd Ward who also illustrated Johnny Remain, a similar book about a boy living in Boston as the American Revolution was beginning. Last summer I read another Lynd Ward illustrated classic, The Swiss Family Robinson. Finally, the Lynd Ward illustrated The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge was one we discovered during my son's childhood and has become one of my favorites.

British General Thomas Gage
(Illustrated by Lynd Ward)

With the July 4th Holiday on the horizon, I decided to dig into Early Thunder.. Almost immediately I was struck by the similarities of the political tension between the Whigs  and the Tories (Loyalists) and a similar (but not corresponding ) tension today between the "Progressives" and Conservatives (e.g., MAGA) .

Early Thunder was published in 1967. It is 256 pages long  spread out over 14 chapters plus an "Author's Note" and  "About the Author" and "About the Illustrator." In addition to the frontispiece, each chapter has an illustration at the start.

Frontispiece - Note the coat of arms

The coat of arms in the lower right of the frontispiece contains the motto of the monarch of England, Dieu et mon droit, which is French for "God and my right." It means that the king is "Rex Angliae Dei gratia" (i.e., King of England by the grace of God). It is used to imply that the monarch of the nation has a God-given (divine) right to rule.

In the story Daniel is faced with the dilemma of obeying the king or becoming a renegade.  This is very similar to how Protestants view the relationship between humans and God. The author, Jean Fritz was born in China where her father was a Presbyterian missionary. They returned to the USA when she was thirteen. I was startled to discover that her family had eventually settled in my town, West Hartford, Connecticut and she had graduated from High School here. What a small world!

Daniel sailing the boat, Libera (freedom).
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