The COVER ART of the EARLY AMERICAN FRONTIER. Part One: THE NARRATIVES OF AMERICA by Allan W. Eckert

Like everyone else, I learned about Early American History in public school, which also included the War of 1812. But it wasn't until I read The Frontiersmen, Allan W. Eckert's first volume in his six-volume historical series "The Winning of America," that I began to really understand exactly how the Americans wrested the eastern half of North America from the Indigenous people who lived there, besides the obvious of course, and the causes leading up to the War of 1812.

Eckert's monumental series meticulously detailed everything and everybody that was involved in the winning of America, or, the losing of America, depending on your viewpoint. On later printings the series was re-dubbed "The Narratives of America," for obvious reasons having to do with political correctness, but also because that's how Eckert initially subtitled each volume, as narratives. I suspect that "The Winning of America" label had more to do with the publisher Little-Brown's marketing strategy than anything that Eckert might have wanted.

Certain techniques normally associated with the novel form were utilized in this first volume, and in all the other books in the series, in order to provide "continuity and maintain a high degree of reader interest," but it was never at the expense of historical accuracy. All of the dialogue that was constructed by Eckert was very closely traced, and in large measure, represented exactly what the actual principal, then or later, wrote or said or thought at the time. Eckert spent seven years researching the first volume alone, and insisted that "every incident described actually occurred; every date is historically accurate; and every character, regardless of how major or how minor, actually lived the role in which he (or she) is portrayed." And what profound characters they are, especially in that first volume, from the legendary Daniel Boone, Simon Girty and George Rogers Clark, to Brigadier General Anthony "Mad" Wayne and General William Henry Harrison. On the Indian side are Cottawamago (Chief Black Fish), Catahecassa (Chief Black Hoof), Weyapiersenwah (Chief Blue Jacket), and the Prophet Tenskwatawa (He-Makes-A-Loud Noise).

But emerging over everyone else in The Frontiersmen are two absolutely resolute figures: Simon Kenton, an American frontiersman and soldier who was instrumental in helping to expand the northwest wilderness for American settling; and Tecumseh, a Shawnee warrior and leader, who vehemently resisted American expansionism at the ultimate cost of his own life. Whatever you may think you know about these two legendary figures will forever be improved upon by reading Eckert's epic chronicle of their lives. However, it should be noted that some of what the author purports in The Frontiersmen has been challenged by other historians, principally, the death of Tecumseh, and Kenton's participation in its immediate aftermath. It ties the two men together conjecturally, and perhaps unfairly builds upon the myth of their relationship.

If this series sounds interesting to you, take heed: deep diving into American history, or any history for that matter, can be extremely disturbing, just as much as it is enlightening. The Narratives of America are a candid and unflinching look at our nation's violent, often savage past, and as such are about as equally horrifying and depressing to read as they are bracing. To offer a subject-related example, after I finished Stephen Brumwell's White Devil, perhaps the best and most exciting book ever written about the life of Major Robert Rogers, one of the French and Indian War's most remarkable figures, I was under a cloud for days. Who could've anticipated that the courageous Rogers would be involved in the wanton slaughter of women, children and the elderly, and end up in debtor's prison and die in obscurity as an alcoholic, his grave-site in London forever lost? What sad details and ending for such a once heroic Colonial leader.  

The six volumes of Eckert's The Narratives of America are as follows:

Volume 1, THE FRONTIERSMEN  (1967).
Volume 2, WILDERNESS EMPIRE  (1969)
Volume 3, THE CONQUERORS  (1971).
Volume 4, THE WILDERNESS WAR  (1978).
Volume 5, GATEWAY TO EMPIRE  (1984).
Volume 6, TWILIGHT OF EMPIRE  (1988).

ALLAN W. ECKERT (1931-2011) was nominated seven times for the Pulitzer Prize, and once for the Newbery Award. He wrote 40 books and more than 150 articles, essays and short stories, as well as numerous screenplays for movies. His 200 plus television scripts for Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom earned him an Emmy Award. He was a dedicated, conscientious historian, but loved writing nature books more than any thing else. He was also a playwright, and his outdoor drama's Tecumseh!, Blue Jacket, and 1913: The Great Dayton Flood have played to more than a million people in the state of Ohio. While living briefly in Florida, Eckert was a member of a writer's club that included John D. MacDonald, Charles Willeford, MacKinlay Kantor and Peter Matthiessen. Pretty good company to have a drink with, and I'm pretty sure those fellows felt the same way about him!

The first hardcover edition of Allan W. Eckert's The Frontiersmen, The Narratives of America 1 was published in hardback by Little, Brown and Company in 1967. The jacket art, and the uncredited interior decorations, were produced by John Alan Maxwell (1904-1983).

This was the first of five cover paintings that John Alan Maxwell would do for Eckert. Maxwell, it turns out, was well suited to painting historical scenes, after having grown up in Virginia and been exposed to first hand talk of the Civil War and its Southern participants at the home of his grandfather. Maxwell received his formal training at the Corcoran School of Art and at the Art Students League in New York where he studied under George Luks, a member of the Ashcan School of early twentieth-century American artists. After graduation he established a studio in New York City, and began producing illustrations for most of the major magazines of his time, including The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, American Magazine, Esquire, The Golden Book, The Ladies Home Journal, and the Woman's Home Companion. He also produced book covers on countless numbers of historical, crime, contemporary and romance novels, for authors as renowned as Louis Bromfield, Pearl Buck, Joseph Conrad, Thomas B. Costain, C.S. Forester, Erle Stanley Gardner, F. Van Wyck Mason, Conrad Richter, Rafael Sabatini, Anya Seton, John Steinbeck, and Rex Stout, among many others. In 1947 the American Artist magazine described Maxwell as the "quintessential illustrator of romance." His great nephew, Douglas Stuart McDaniel, thought pretty highly of him too, so much so that he made a film about him based on his studio years in New York. The title: "The Lovelies of John Alan Maxwell."

One of my favorite painted illustrations on any book was made by Maxwell, for James D. Horan's The Shadow Catcher, which is also one of the best frontier novels I've had the pleasure to read. I will be featuring it in one of the sequels to this post.

     "The frontiersmen were a remarkable breed of men. They were often rough and illiterate, sometimes brutal and vicious, often seeking an escape in the wilderness of mid-America from crimes committed back east. In the beautiful but deadly country which would one day come to be known as West Virginia, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, more often than not they left their bones to bleach beside forest paths or on the banks of the Ohio River, victims of Indians who claimed the vast virgin territory and strove to turn back the growing tide of Whites. These frontiersmen are the subjects of Allan Eckert's remarkable dramatic history.
    Against the background of such names as George Rogers Clark, Daniel Boone, Arthur St. Clair, Anthony Wayne, Simon Girty and William Henry Harrison, Eckert has recreated the life of one of America's most outstanding heroes, Simon Kenton. Kenton's role in opening the Northwest Territory to settlement more than rivaled that of his friend Daniel Boone. By his eighteenth birthday, Kenton had already won frontier renown as woodsman, fighter and scout. His incredible physical strength and endurance, his great dignity and innate kindness made him the ideal prototype of the frontier hero.
    Yet there is another story to THE FRONTIERSMEN. It is equally the story of one of history's greatest leaders, whose misfortune was to be born to a doomed cause and a dying race. Tecumseh, the brilliant Shawnee chief, welded together by the sheer force of his intellect and charisma an incredible Indian confederacy that came desperately close to breaking the trust of the white man's westward expansion. Like Kenton, Tecumseh was the paragon of his people's virtues, and the story of his life, in Allan Eckert's hands, reveals most profoundly the grandeur and the tragedy of the American Indian.
    No less importantly, THE FRONTIERSMEN is the story of wilderness America itself, its penetration and settlement, and it is Eckert's particular grace to be able to evoke life and meaning from the raw facts of this story. In THE FRONTIERSMEN, not only do we care about our long-forgotten fathers, we live again with them.
    Researched for seven years, THE FRONTIERSMEN is the first in a series Mr. Eckert is writing entitled "The Winning of America."

The first mass-market paperback edition of The Frontiersmen (NOA #1) was published by Bantam in August, 1970, This was the edition that I bought and eagerly read when I was a teenager, a handsome, affordable one that lent itself well to my limited income. 

For years, decades actually, I didn't know who this cover artist was. Although a signature is visible in the lower right corner, it's barely discernible even under magnification. It took a bit of digging finally to learn it was made by the famed Western artist Ken Riley. That led to the realization that Riley produced another of my favorite covers, promoting a famous 19th century adventure novel also issued by Bantam in 1970, and one I will definitely be featuring someday (actually, in next month's post, yay!). 

Kenneth Pauling Riley (1919-2015) was born in Missouri and studied under Thomas Hart Benton at the Kansas City Art Institute. He also attended the Art Students League in NY and the Grand Central Art School in NY, where he studied under and was influenced heavily by famed artist, Harvey Dunn. In addition to his many book covers are some outstanding illustrations for leading magazines, among them The Saturday Evening Post's popular stories of Captain Hornblower by C. S. Forester. What Riley was especially noted for, besides his mature draftsmanship, compositions, and award-winning Western Art, which was collected in the book West of Camelot (1993), was his effective use of color to create space, movement and mood, including the application of monochromatic palettes, like the one seen on The Frontiersman (and on that "famous adventure novel" I mentioned). Riley also created several paintings of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks for the U.S. Park Service, and was one of only three artists to be presented with the Eiteljorg Award for Artistic excellence by the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis, Indiana.

"Driven from their homeland, the Indians fought bitterly to keep a stronghold east of the Mississippi. almost inhuman cunning, strength, skill and knowledge of the wilderness were their weapons, and they used them mercilessly. But they didn't foresee the men who followed them, men who loved the land as much as they did, who wanted it for their own, men who learned their tricks and matched brutality with brutality."

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Not unexpectedly, given the sudden rise in popularity of American History during the 1970's due to our Nation's Bicentennial celebrations, The Frontiersmen sold well for Bantam, and in 1980 when its 7th printing was issued the cover art was updated with a new wraparound painting by Lou Glanzman.

Louis Glanzman (1922- 2013) had no formal art training and was largely self taught, entering the field first through comic books and then getting his big break with True Magazine in 1948. After that he began producing illustrations for magazines such as Argosy, Boy's Life, Life Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, National Geographic, National Lampoon, The New Yorker, Reader's Digest, and Woman's Day. For Time Magazine alone he produced 80 covers, 40 of them portraits of prominent people. He also painted Neil Armstrong's landing on the moon for Time, and created artwork for the National Park Service. Some of his earliest illustrations were for the English language translations of the Pippi Longstocking series, in 1950. He is listed as a Children's Illustrator in addition to being a respected visual chronicler of history. His younger brother Sam was also a professional illustrator.

Glanzman's hardback and paperback covers are too numerous to mention, suffice to say that somewhere along the line he caught the attention of Bantam's art directors, who locked him in for the Narratives of America series.  

"Driven from their homeland, the Indians fought bitterly to keep a final stronghold east of the Mississippi. Savage cunning, strength, skill and knowledge of the wilderness were their weapons, and the Indians used them mercilessly. But they couldn't foresee the white men who would come later, men who loved the land as much as they did, who wanted it for their own. Men who learned the Indian tricks and matched brutality for brutality."

This painting by Glanzman, an acrylic on plywood, was used on a later Bantam printing of The Frontiersmen, circa the 1990's. Glanzman's signature is on the upper right side, written vertically.

"Oct. 2, 1779, Saturday
Simon Kenton found deep peace and contentment in once again roaming the hills and valleys of the land he had sought so long in vain. The experienced with the Shawnees had marked him. No longer was there any trace of boyishness about him. Even though he smiled frequently, his laughter was a rare thing..."

This is an undated painting of Simon Kenton in his senior years by an unknown artist (bottom). It was derived from an engraving by Richard W. Dodson (middle, circa 1939), itself derived from a supposed life painting by Louis M. Morgan (top, 1836), a color image of which I could not find anywhere. Of course, this is not how I pictured the 6-foot-plus Kenton in my head. I saw him, ha ha, more like actor Clint Walker.

                     Full of Honors, Full of Years
                                                                --- Gravestone of Simon Kenton (1755-1836).

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Here's a scene showing Kenton stepping out (or into) a canoe. It is titled, "Simon Kenton's Voyage to Steal Horses," by its painter Steve White.

Steve White (1948-) grew up in Mason County, Kentucky, which borders the Ohio River. In 1976, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in art education with an area of concentration in painting from Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky. Since childhood, White has had a fascination for the history of Early American pioneers and the Indians who fought their arrival. As an adult it manifested itself in some truly excellent painted illustrations from this regionally based artist. His studio is currently located in the historic district of downtown Maysville, Kentucky

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The endpages from Simon Kenton, His Life and Period 1755-1936 by Edna Kenton (Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1930), showing Simon Kenton lashed to a wild stallion by Shawnees, punishment for trying to steal horses. A day later he would be forced to run a brutal gauntlet, which he barely survives. The lithograph was produced by artist Karl Bodmer and Jean Francois Millet in 1889.

This is the best known image of Tecumseh (1768-1813), painted in watercolor and attributed to Owen Staples (1866-1949). Staples based his painting on an 1868 engraving by Benson John Lossing (seen on top), itself derived from the alleged 1808 pencil sketches of Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa by French trader Pierre Le Dru at Vincennes, Indiana. It is thought however that neither Tecumseh nor his brother were ever in Vincennes at the same time, so Le Dru probably mistook one of Tenskwatawa's companions for Tecumseh. As it appears in the engraving, Tecumseh is wearing a twisted nose ring and is dressed in the uniform of a brigadier general of the British Army-- the uniform being merely a fancy imagined by Lossing. According to Tecumseh biographer John Sugden, "No fully authenticated portrait of the Shawnee leader exists."

"Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision."  --- Tecumseh                                                                                                       
                            

Here's a scene showing Tecumseh and his fellow tribesman riding on a trail to an unknown destination. It was painted by Robert Griffing.

Robert Griffing (1940-) grew up in Linesville, Pennsylvania, and developed a love of American history while roaming the fields near his home as a child, searching doggedly for what all kids hope to find, arrowheads. After graduating from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, he began a thirty year career as a commercial advertising illustrator. But his fascination with the Eastern Woodland Indians of the 18th century eventually propelled him to start painting realistic scenes based on our current knowledge of the period. Griffing is now considered one of the premier painters of the Early American Frontier.

"Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none. When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself."   --- Tecumseh.

 

Wilderness Empire, The Narratives of America 2 was published in hardback by Little, Brown and Company in July, 1969. The jacket art was produced by John Alan Maxwell.

    "For over two hundred years no Indian force in America was so powerful and feared as the Iroquois League. Throughout two thirds of this continent, the cry of "The Iroquois are coming!" was enough to demoralize entire tribes. But these Iroquois occupied and controlled a vast wilderness empire which beckoned like a precious gem to foreign powers. France and England secured toeholds and suddenly each was claiming as its own this land of the Iroquois. Alliance with the Indians was the key; whichever power controlled them could destroy the other.
    WILDERNESS EMPIRE is the gripping narrative of the eighteenth-century struggle of these two powers to win for themselves the allegiance of the Indians in a war for territorial dominance, yet without letting these Indians know that the prize of the war would be this very Iroquois land. It is the story of English strength hamstrung by incredible incompetence, of French power sapped by devastating corruption. It is the story of the English, Indian and French individuals whose lives intertwine in the greatest territorial struggle in American history---the French and Indian War.
    Allan Eckert has molded the raw facts of history into a moving, perceptive and penetrating narrative filled with the grace and pathos, action and beauty, humanity and savagery of which survival on the American frontier was all a part."

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The first mass-market paperback edition of Wilderness Empire (NOA #2) was published by Bantam in October, 1971. The cover art was produced by Ken Riley.

"The Iroquois are coming!"
1755---the frontier was ablaze. Whipped to a fury by the French, the Iroquois were cutting a swath of desolation from New York to Virginia. Terrified settlers banded together, no match for the red man's cunning. Cabins were burned, entire families butchered, victims scalped, captives tortured. Yet in the end, the Iroquois would lose their land."

"French, Indian, English lives intertwine in the French and Indian War."

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Lou Glanzman provided a new wraparound cover on Bantam's 8th printing of Wilderness Empire (NOA #2). It was published in 1981. Nine years later for its 14th printing it would still have the same cover art, abandoning it during the 1990's for a different, smaller image also by Glanzman (see immediately below). The back cover description though was largely the same, just tweaked a bit word wise.

"The Frontier was ablaze!"
Whipped to a frenzy by the French, the Iroquois were cutting a swath of desolation from New York to Virginia. Terrified settlers banded together, no match for the Indians' cunning. Cabins were burned, entire families massacred, victims scalped, captives tortured. Yet, in the end, the Iroquois would pay the highest price."

"Allan W. Eckert's NARRATIVES OF AMERICA are true sagas of the brave men and courageous women who won our land. Every character and event in this sweeping series is drawn from actual history, and woven into the vast and powerful epic that was America's westward expansion."

This is that later 1990's printing of Wilderness Empire (NOA #2) with new cover art by Glanzman. The description on the back is the same as the previous printing.

The Conquerors, The Narratives of America 3 was published in hardback by Little, Brown and Company in 1970. The jacket art was produced by John Alan Maxwell.

    "THE CONQUERORS, the third volume in Allan Eckert's acclaimed series, the Winning of American, continues the narrative of THE FRONTIERSMEN and WILDERNESS EMPIRE: the violent and monumental story of the wresting of the North American continent from the Indians. But the locale has moved westward---to the northern frontiers of Pennsylvania, top Michigan and the Green Bay area, especially the crucial outposts of Fort Pitt and Fort Detroit, Sandusky and Mackinac.
    WILDERNESS EMPIRE concluded with the English victory in the French and Indian War, a conquest which gave them possession of an immense North American empire. Now English soldiers and traders began the trek across the wilderness to man the former French outposts, to secure the land for the Crown and to exploit its riches. But these men were to find that the conquest of the Northwest did not end with the defeat of the French. The Indians had only resentment for the English, whom they regarded not as conquerors, but as unwelcome interlopers on their own ancestral lands. At last, provoked beyond endurance by restrictive policies, and encouraged by agents of the French, the most powerful tribes of the region united behind the charismatic Pontiac, war chief of the Ottawa, in a concerted effort to drive the English forever from the Northwest.
    THE CONQUERORS is the story of Pontiac's uprising and the men involved in it: the conquering English, both soldiers and intrepid civilians, who undertook the dangers of the Indian trade for profit and the adventure of opening a new land; and, most importantly, the Indians, who refused to accept the yoke of the conquered and were driven to violence to protect their homes and their way of life from the encroachment of an alien civilization.
    Combining the accuracy of a chronicle and the spellbinding pace of a story well told, Allan Eckert once again evokes the high drama of the conquest of the Northwest and the breathtaking grandeur of the land itself."

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This 7th mass-market paperback printing of The Conquerors (NOA #3) was issued by Bantam in January, 1989. It has the same cover art by Lou Glanzman that was used on the 1981 first paperback edition.

"The had defeated the French and now the English possessed the vast North American empire. Soldiers, traders, settlers--all began the trek across the wilderness to claim the land and its riches. Against this relentless tide Indian warriors rose up in bitter fury united behind the mighty chief Pontiac. Quickly the frontier exploded in the bloody battle for the conquest of the Northwest territory."

The Wilderness War, The Narratives of America 4 was published in hardback by Little, Brown and Company in 1978. The jacket art was produced by John Alan Maxwell.

    "THE WILDERNESS WAR is the eagerly awaited fourth volume in Allan W. Eckert's acclaimed series of narratives, The Winning of America, the violent and monumental description of the wresting of the North American continent from the Indians.
    Two hundred fifty years had elapsed since the five nations, the greatest of the Indian tribes, ceased their continual warfare among themselves and banded together for mutual defense. their union had created the feared and formidable Iroquois League; their empire stretched from Lake Champlain, across New York to Niagara Falls. Theirs was a remarkable form of representative government that presage our own, and their wealth lay in the vast, beautiful lands abundant with crops. As warriors they were unsurpassed---even the depredations of the recent French and Indian War could not diminish their prowess.
    But by 1770 the white men living in their land were fighting among themselves again, and war came once more to the Iroquois land.
    THE WILDERNESS WAR begins in 1763 (where the second book in this series, Wilderness Empire, concluded with the English victory over the French in the French and Indian War) and continues through the American Revolution to 1780, by which time the Iroquois League had been ruptured and the Indians dispossessed of their homelands.
    Their defeat and humiliation occurred despite the valor of their famous war chief Thayendanegea, better known as Joseph Brant, who had allied his tribes with the one man the Iroquois loved and trusted, Sir William Johnson, Colonial Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and subsequently with Johnson's son and nephew, leaders of the Tory forces in New York.
    Based on an abundance of primary sources: original letters and notes, diaries and journals, deeds, wills, military records, Indian tribal records, logbooks, newspapers and magazines and government reports, and dominated by the compelling character of Chief Joseph Brant, THE WILDERNESS WAR gives a factual account (sustained with the suspense and pace of first-rate fiction) of the last years of the Iroquois Empire and the first years of the American nation. Allan W. Eckert has molded raw facts of history into a moving, perceptive and penetrating narrative. It is filled with the pathos and action, humanity and savagery which were all a part of survival on the American frontier."

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This 4th mass-market paperback printing of The Wilderness War (NOA #4) was published by Bantam in August, 1986. It uses the same cover art by Lou Glanzman that was on the 1982 first paperback edition.

"From Niagara Falls to Lake Champlain, the warriors of the mighty Iroquois ruled supreme. Not even the savagery of the French and Indian Wars could cool their fury or halt their power. But by 1770, the restless white men were warring once again. Thayendanegea, the valiant Iroquois war chief, allied his fierce tribes with the one white man the Indians loved and trusted, Sir William Johnson. Once more the frontier would erupt; pitting the Indians' unvanquished spirit against the White settler's relentless challenge." 

This acrylic painting by Glanzman was used on a later Bantam printing of The Wilderness War (NOA #4), circa the 1990's. Glanzman's signature is on the lower right side, written vertically.

"June 30, 1778
Tuesday. The encampment... "

This trade sized softcover edition of the uncorrected advance proof of The Narratives of America 5, Gateway to Empire was distributed to North American librarians and reviewers in December, 1982, by Little, Brown and Company. The cover decoration, and indeed all of the chapter decorations, were carried over from the earlier hardcover titles in the series, and although uncredited, were conceived and drawn by John Alan Maxwell.

Gateway to Empire, The Narratives of America 5 was published in hardback by Little, Brown and Company in 1983. The jacket art was produced by Alex Farquharson.

Alexander Farquharson is a graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and teaches (or did at one time) drawing and painting at DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, a wonderful, contemporary arts museum that I've visited on many occasions. Farquharson has also taught classes at the Fitchburg Art Museum in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and at the Sharon Arts Center in Peterboro, New Hampshire. He has been producing cover art and illustrations for numerous books since the 1970's, among them the novels 1787 (Joan Anderson), The White House is Burning (Jane Sutcliffe), The Story of the Samson (Kathleen Benner Duble), and The Sending (Geoffrey Household). He has also produced several jacket covers for the bestselling mystery author, Martha Grimes.

    "In GATEWAY TO EMPIRE, the fifth volume in the acclaimed series THE WINNING OF AMERICA, Allan Eckert continues to re-create the relentless and tragic wresting of the North American continent from the Indians.
    As in THE FRONTIERSMEN, WILDERNESS EMPIRE, THE CONQUERORS, and THE WILDERNESS WAR, this latest volume is irrefutable history made excitingly immediate through the lives of memorable individuals. The story traces the settling of the Illinois region from 1763 to 1816 and focuses on the "gateway to empire"---the Chicago Portage, a vital link between the East and the untapped riches of the West. When Pontiac, Chief of the Ottawas, was murdered in 1769, his tribe, as well as the Potawatomi and others, swept into the territory of the Illinois Confederacy, virtually eradicated its members, and claimed the land for themselves. These Indians in turn faced encroachment, first from the British, then even more forcibly from the Americans. In exchange for relative peace, liquor, and trade goods, more and more Indian chiefs signed away their land. But one Indian looked ahead and saw that his people would have no land at all unless they banded together to stop the white man. Tecumseh, a Shawnee of unparalleled wisdom and gift for prophecy, began to build his dream of a untied Indian nation. A devastating treachery would undermine the plan at the last moment, and the Indians would have no choice but to fight alongside the British against the Americans in the War of 1812.
    At the war's outset, John Kinzie was a highly successful trader at Chicago, where he had established his post eight years earlier. What enabled him to survive this harsh environment---apart from his passion for new frontiers and for the stunning Eleanor McKillip---was the mutual respect and affection he shared with the Indians. Although Kinzie was an American and therefore an enemy in the War of 1812, not one Indian in any tribe would raise a weapon against him.
     Around these two pivotal and completely factual characters a rich and highly readable story unfolds. There is honor and treachery on both sides, as Tecumseh's ten-year effort is destroyed overnight by the greedy caprice of his brother The Prophet, and as the cowardly U.S. Brigadier General William Hull surrenders Detroit without a fight. The climax is the Chicago Massacre, reenacted here minute by minute, as the unsuspecting settlers walk from the safety of Fort Dearborn into certain slaughter by their Indian escorts. But only briefly is the white man stopped.
    Allan Eckert has gathered the fragments of his history from letters, diaries, journals, military records, and tribal histories. He has walked every mile of the are he writes about. Eckert has molded these raw
facts into a moving, perceptive, and penetrating narrative. This is history at its most absorbing, filled with the suspense and immediacy we expect of first-rate fiction."

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This first mass-market paperback printing of Gateway to Empire (NOA #5) was published by Bantam in June, 1984. The cover art was produced by Lou Glanzman.

"With his unmatched ability to bring our vibrant early history to life, Allan W. Eckert now presents his latest saga of the battle for the North American wilderness. Here, in all its fascinating human drama, is the struggle to control the "gateway to empire"--the Chicago Portage, the vital link between the East and the untapped riches of the West. Caught up in the turbulent sweep of events are two men---John Kinzie, a successful trader with a heroic taste for new frontiers who fought hard to live in  mutual respect with the Indians, and Tecumseh the Shawnee leader, a man of unparalleled wisdom and courage who would see his dream of a united Indian empire betrayed. As the British move toward the War of 1812 both men and their people would be trapped in a tragic conflict that would threaten the land they so passionately loved."
 

Here's another acrylic painting by Glanzman that was used on a later Bantam paperback printing of Gateway to Empire (NOA #5), circa the 1990's. The fort in question is Fort Dearborn, built in 1803 beside the Chicago River in what is now Chicago, Illinois, and named in honor of Henry Dearborn, then United States Secretary of War.

The Narratives of America 6, Twilight of Empire was published in hardback by Little, Brown and Company in 1988. The jacket art was produced by Jim Deneen.

James Bennett "J.B." Deneen (1930-2012) was an American illustrator specializing in World War I biplanes, trains, and Western Art portraits and scenes. With very little formal art training, Deneen was able to build a successful commercial art career that lasted as long as he did. Some his earliest commissions were with the Smithsonian Institute and the Minnesota Twins Major League Baseball Club. In 1969 he formed Echelon Printing in order to protect and preserve art, as well as to promote his own in-demand services. In addition to his many book covers are poster work for the film industry, including the 1983 Bess Armstrong/Tom Selleck movie, High Road to China. Deneen was a member of the Society of Illustrators in New York, and in 2005 he was honored as Aviation Artist of the Year by the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame for being an ambassador for the history of aviation.

    "TWILIGHT OF EMPIRE, the sixth volume in Allan Eckert's highly acclaimed The Winning of America series, continues the tale of America's westward expansion and the trickery, warfare, purchase, theft, and treaty through which it was achieved.
    As with THE FRONTIERSMEN, WILDERNESS EMPIRE, THE CONQUERORS, THE WILDERNESS WAR, and GATEWAY TO EMPIRE, this new volume is actual history made vividly immediate through the lives of the memorable individuals who lived it. Picking up in time roughly where he left off in GATEWAY TO EMPIRE, Eckert immerses the reader in the history of the Northwest Territories and the Louisiana Purchase during the first half of the nineteenth century as he relates the dramatic events presaging and composing the Black Hawk War of 1832. It is a story with heroes and scoundrels on both sides and is peopled with men whose names have gone down in history. Positions from sheriffs to judges, from congressmen to presidents, were filled by me who participated in one way or another in this war; among the characters we meet are the young William Henry Harrison, Colonel Zachary Taylor, Captain Abraham Lincoln, and Captain William Clark of the famed expedition.
    When appointed Governor of Indiana Territory at the age of twenty-seven by President John Adams, the precocious and politically ambitious William Henry Harrison knew that his own political fortunes depended upon attracting as many settlers as possible to the frontier, while pushing the Indian tribes west of the Mississippi. The influx of settlers, however, found a deadly obstacle in the form of a Sac war chief named Black Hawk. Powerful and proud, Black Hawk, already known for his bold, odds-defying attacks on rival tribes, refused to honor a treaty of 1804 and move to land west of the Mississippi, and he organized other Indian peoples in resistance against the settlers. He was induced to sign another treaty to relocate west of the river in 1831, but in 1832 he and his warriors were back across it, emerging from a hidden encampment to burn frontier settlements and then vanish like ghosts before the much larger forces of General Henry Atkinson. When the two sides finally do meet, there is one final, bloody battle.
    Allan Eckert has culled the fragments of his history from hundreds of personal letters and notes, journals, diaries, military records, tribal records, and many other sources, and he has molded them into a moving, perceptive, and penetrating narrative. It is history at is most absorbing."

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This first mass-market paperback printing of Twilight of Empire (NOA #6) was published by Bantam in July, 1989. The cover art was produced by Lou Glanzman.

"One of the premier chroniclers of our nation's turbulent frontier history, Allan W. Eckert, now presents another spellbinding chapter in the conquest of the American Wilderness. Here is the powerful, compelling human story of the white man's struggle to claim the rich land of the northern Mississippi---ancestral home of the Fox and Sac tribes---from the legendary war chief Black Hawk. Having killed his first enemy at sixteen, this proud, brooding warrior extends a hand in friendship to the Spanish and British, but harbors a life-long hatred for the Americans, who once burned his home village. Now charged by the president himself, the ambitious governor of Illinois territory leads a brave and illustrious group of settlers and soldiers to wrest the beautiful land from Black Hawk's people, igniting a savage and tragic conflict between a nation of destiny and a noble chieftain fated to be betrayed by his own kind."

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WHAT FOLLOWS BELOW are five associated books written by Allan W. Eckert, only one of which I've actually read (A Sorrow In Our Heart). 

A Sorrow In Our Heart, The Life of Tecumseh is undoubtedly Eckert's magnum opus, although it is not without its minor criticism, primarily for its liberal use of made-up dialogue and situations when it is supposed to be a non-fiction account (its use certainly made for better reading though, which is exactly why it was employed). It was published in hardback and paperback by Bantam in 1992 and '93. The cover art was produced by Alan Gough.

Alan Gough (1931-) received his formal art training at the American Academy of Art in Chicago and for many years afterward was a commercial artist before becoming a studio artist, a role he has held for almost 60 years. His forte is landscapes, mood inducing vistas of beaches, meadows and fields, each one harboring either a lone boat, tree, bridge, road or farmhouse. They are impressively rendered, and beautiful to look at, or better yet, have hanging in your house.

    "A fiery orator, a brilliant diplomat, a revolutionary thinker, a political and military genius, the man named Tecumseh became a legend among Native Americans and Whites. He stood as a messiah to his people during one of the most crucial periods of their history, as the Whites began to explore and expand to the west of the British colonies. Here five-time Pulitzer Prize nominee Allan W. Eckert tells the life story of this great leader as it has never been told before, with the meticulous accuracy of a scholar and the dramatic flair of a novelist. Mining sources of information never before utilized, Eckert fleshes out the details of a fascinating life and corrects the mistakes of previous accounts.
    Tecumseh's was a life that did not lack in drama. Born in 1768 under the augury of a shooting star, Tecumseh ("The-Panther-Passing-Across") was the subject of prophecies from his adoptive father Chiungalla, his brother Chiksika, and the great Miami chief Michikiniqua. Proving himself a skilled hunter by the age of six, Tecumseh went on to be accorded warrior status at twelve---an almost unheard-of honor. Commanding a remarkable amount of respect for a young man, at fifteen he took a stand against the torture and brutality Shawnee warriors inflicted upon Whites and other prisoners---and, with an eloquence far beyond his years, swayed older warriors to his cause. As the American forces planned a massive campaign to exterminate the Shawnee, the twenty-three-year-old Tecumseh repeatedly walked boldly through the streets of the settlement at Cincinnati---and with the walls of Fort Washington itself---to gather intelligence that led the Shawnee to win the greatest Indian victory in history over any American military force. Though he did not belong to one of the ruling clans of Shawnee, the visionary Tecumseh extended his power beyond tribal boundaries to become a leader among many Native American tribes, forming an unprecedented alliance against the White settlers and their government.
    Although Tecumseh drew together perhaps the largest force ever commanded by a North American Indian, playing a decisive role in the capture of Detroit and of more than 2,000 U.S soldiers during the War of 1812, his grand design for Native American unification was doomed to failure. One year later, the Shooting Star fell in battle. But the story does not end in defeat and death: the great warriors and statesmen of history are measured by the power of their charisma, the strength of their message, the boldness of their vision---and on that scale Tecumseh's star burns as bright as ever."

That Dark and Bloody River, Chronicles of the Ohio River Valley by Allan W. Eckert was published in hardback and paperback by Bantam in 1995 and 1996. Eckert's wife Nancy felt that this book, which most people consider along with A Sorrow in Our Heart to be a legitimate part of the Narratives of America series, was his best work. The cover art was produced by Alan Ayers.

Alan Ayers graduated from Temple University's Tyler School of Art with a BFA in 1981. He was trained traditionally, creating book covers and advertising art in acrylic and oil for more than fifteen years, but as the world changed so did Ayers, and now he produces book covers and other commercial images digitally. He is particularly recognized now for his lush, photo-realistic romance covers, and while I like beautiful, realistic looking women as much as the next person, I find myself drawn to his earlier, traditionally painted book covers more than his newer digital conceptions. Among them are some pretty good horror and science fiction covers for authors such as Ray Garton, Joe R. Lansdale, Alan Rodgers Al Sarrantonio Bob Ham, and Paul Preuss. Ayers also painted one of the best, or at least one of the most oddly exuberant, Heavy Metal magazine covers in their history, for the November, 1982 issue. 

    "They came on foot and by horseback, in wagons and on rafts, singly and by the score, restless, adventurous, enterprising, relentless, seeking a foothold on the future. European immigrants and American colonists, settlers and speculators, soldiers and missionaries, fugitives from justice and from despair---pioneers all, in the great and inexorable westward expansion, defined at its heart by the majestic flow of the Ohio river. This is their story, a chronicle of monumental dimension, of resounding drama and impact set during a pivotal era in our history, the birth and growth of a nation.
    To the banks of the Ohio came men and women willing to face any hazard or hardship to stake their claim, from cultured entrepreneurs such as George Washington to trailblazers like Daniel Boone, as rough and ready as the land itself. Here too was grizzled John Wetzel and his wife, determined to carve a farm out of the forest... young Betty Zane, who showed uncommon valor and quick thinking under Indian attack... bold visionary Ebenezer Zane, who sought to bring some rule of law to the lawless wild... and Samuel Brady, a soldier of fierce intelligence---and fierce hatreds. For them, the pilgrimage west marked the beginning of a dream. But for others---the Shawnee, the Delaware, the Wyandots---it marked the beginning of the end. And in the conflict that ensued, the Ohio came to be known as "that dark and bloody river that leads to a dark and blood land."
    Treaties were signed and broken, alliances formed and dissolved, and war raged across the frontier. Every raid brought retribution, and in retribution there was no mercy. The vanquishing of the Ohio is a tale of triumph and tragedy---a dream born in the desire for self-determination and freedom, acquisition and expansion... a destiny realized in a burst of flames and blood."

Blue Jacket, War Chief of the Shawnees by Allan W. Eckert was published in hardback by Little, Brown and Company in 1969. The jacket art and interior illustrations were produced by Lorence Bjorklund. 

Lorence Bjorklund (1913-1978) moved from Minnesota to New York in 1931 to enroll in the Pratt Institute on an art scholarship. His instructors were some of the greatest pulp artists of the era, among them Rudolph Belarski, Frederick Blakeslee and H. W. Scott. It wasn't long too before he was one of them, producing covers and illustrations for adventure, detective, jungle and western pulp magazines. When the pulps began to fade he became a distinguished illustrator of historical novels and books on the Old West.

NOTE: Eckert's research led him to believe that Blue Jacket (Weyapiersenwah, 1743-1810) was a White man named Marmaduke Van Swearingen. Some historians have disputed this, suggesting that Blue Jacket was actually much older than Van Swearingen at the time of his capture and adoption into the Shawnee tribe, and not likely to be the same person. DNA testing in 2000 and 2006 of the descendants of Blue Jacket and Van Swearingen has since proven that Eckert was indeed wrong. The DNA from the two families did not match, concluding that, "Barring any questions of the paternity of the Chief's single son who lived to produce male heirs, the 'Blue Jacket with-Caucasian-roots' is not based on reality."

    "In the year 1771, a White boy was captured by Shawnee Indians in what is now part of West Virginia, but was then the edge of our American frontier. He was not killed. Instead he was adopted into the tribe and given the name Blue Jacket, from the blue shirt he had been wearing at the time of his capture. This boy later so excelled as a fighter and leader of men that he was made war chief of the Shawnee Nation. And the name Blue Jacket became famous throughout the Northwest Territory.
    Allan w. Eckert, author of The Frontiersmen, has taken all of the known facts of Blue Jacket's life and has woven them into a narrative with a very different perspective on the settling of America. Blue Jacket was an Indian in every way save that of birth. He was dedicated to preventing the efforts of the White man to Indian land and life. The reader fights by Blue Jacket's side in the wilderness that was Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia, as this story of the dangerous frontier life unfolds."

The Court-Martial of Daniel Boone by Allan W. Eckert was published in hardback by Little, Brown and Company in 1973. The jacket art was produced by John Alan Maxwell.

"Based on a true, little-known episode in Daniel Boone's life, Allan Eckert's first full-length novel re-creates the legendary frontiersman's severest test---the trial for his life at Boonesborough in 1778. A captain during the Revolutionary War, Boone faces court-martial and hanging for such high crimes as betraying his command to the Indians, conspiring to surrender Boonesborough, consorting with the enemy, and accepting favors from the British.
    And Boone pleads guilty to all of the actions detailed in the charges against him.
    But he also pleads not guilty to the charge of treason, and to the amazement of the court, he insists on defending himself---disregarding the advice of experienced legal counsel in favor of a plan only he himself knows.
    Strong, seemingly irrefutable evidence is added to the prosecution's case with each witness. To a man, they corroborated the capture of Boone and his company by Shawnee Indians, Boone's preferential treatment in the Indian camp, his negotiations with the Shawnee chief and the British Commandant in Detroit to surrender Boonesborough, his suspicious conduct during the recent heavy siege of the village, and his adoption by the Shawnees. Finally, confronted by almost certain conviction and an embittered hostile gallery of settlers who once trusted him, Boone mounts his defense.
    Allan W. Eckert supports this rousing, highly suspenseful story of the famous frontier hero with a historian's attention to the facts of the trial and a novelist's sure feeling for the danger and adventure of the eighteenth-century American wilderness. Whether capturing the rough speech of a frightened settler or weighing the patience and hunter's cunning of Daniel Boone, the author commands the same narrative power that distinguishes his acclaimed "Winning of America" series."

This mass-market paperback edition of The Court-Martial of Daniel Boone was published by Bantam in 1987. The cover art was produced by Lou Glanzman.

    "The Charge: Treason. The Punishment: Death by Hanging.
    1778. Boonesborough, Kentucky. While to the north George Washington's Continental Army was in deep trouble, so was American frontiersman Daniel Boone. In this desolate outpost in Indian occupied territory he stood accused of conspiring with the British and the Shawnee against his fellow patriots.
    The Accusor: Captain Richard Callaway, his longtime enemy. The evidence: Boone had become the adopted son of Shawnee Chief Black Fish, a British ally---and he had sworn to surrender Boonesborough to the enemy commander. Boone admitted everything. But he sword he had not betrayed his country.
    From the five-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, Allan W. Eckert, here is a tale of war and justice, lies and cowardice---and the truth about a man who was even greater than his legend."
  

Johnny Logan, Shawnee Spy by Allan W. Eckert was published in hardback by Little, Brown and Company in 1983. As of yet I have not been able to identify who produced this jacket illustration.

    "JOHNNY LOGAN will be welcomed by all of Allan Eckert's admirers, especially those who loved Blue Jacket, the story of a frontier boy who became a Shawnee Indian. Blue Jacket's popularity inspired Mr. Eckert to write JOHNNY LOGAN, the true story of a Shawnee who became a U.S. spy. JOHNNY LOGAN was one of the greatest Indian friends the white man ever had on the American frontier; and he was the only Indian buried with full United States military honors.
    Born Spemica Lawba in the Ohio Country in 1774, he was captured at the age of twelve by General Benjamin Logan but later returned to his tribe. Despite great admiration for Tecumseh, his uncle and leader of the Indian nation, Johnny Logan realized he loved his adopted family and their culture even more.
    The advent of the War of 1812 forced Johnny to make a wrenching decision: remain loyal to his tribe and his heritage, or serve the adopted culture that had become truly his own. With great misgivings, Johnny Logan became a spy against the British and his fellow Indians.
    Allan Eckert provides the colorful details of Johnny Logan's amazing life, his harrowing adventures and impossible choices. All of the incidents, customs, and people are true and recreate the moving story of this heroic Shawnee spy."

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BELOW are some bonus images of 18th Century Eastern North American people and life painted by four masters of frontier art. Any one of their images could easily represent Eckert's The Narratives of America series.

FIRST up is the already noted Steve White. 

"Blue Jacket" by Steve White. There are no known images of the great Shawnee chief Weyapiersenwah (1738-1810) that were drawn in his lifetime, but this is a great interpretation of what he would have looked like.

"Defiance" by Steve White.

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"When Two Worlds Clash" by Steve White. This scene shows a White captive being led across a stream.

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NEXT is the already noted Robert Griffing.

"Fragile Trust" by Robert Griffing. 

"On the Trail to Fort Pitt" by Robert Griffing. Here is a scene in the year 1762, showing a band of Mingos on a trading mission to Fort Pitt (seen on the point of land below), pausing to chat on the heights overlooking the merging of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, which combine to form the Ohio River. Fort Pitt sits on what is now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

"Preparing To Meet The Enemy" by Robert Griffing. This is a typical Delaware encampment in Western Pennsylvania or Eastern Ohio. The three men appear to be making adjustments to their weapons, and are painted for war. 

"Planning the Attack on Fort Pitt" by Robert Griffing. Three Senecas attempt to devise a plan of attack on Fort Pitt, an almost impregnable British fort. The year is 1763.

"The Long Journey Home" by Robert Griffing.

"Unconquered" by Robert Griffing. Fort Pitt, as seen from a height across the way by three Mingos. The year is 1765.

"When Compassion Breaks Down Barriers" by Robert Griffing.

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"We Dined in a Hollow Cottonwood Tree" by Robert Griffing. This massive tree, actually a sycamore and rendered as such by Griffing because cottonwoods did not exist in Ohio back then, was described in a journal as a cottonwood by the French Jesuit priest Joseph Pierre de Bonnecamp during his travels through the Ohio Valley in 1749. It was said to hold twenty-nine men sitting side-by-side. The Edgar Award-winning novelist Eliot Pattison recreated a similar tree for the climax of his Colonial mystery, The Bone Rattler (2007). I'd like to think that his research led him to this tree in particular. (The large canoes, by the way, are cargo boats, built to transport men and supplies, or trade goods, throughout the waterways of the frontier).

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NEXT is the the artwork of master frontier painter, David Wright (1942-). Wright's paintings have been featured in television documentaries and as covers for numerous books and magazines for decades now. He was nominated for a Prime Time Emmy for his exceptional work on the History Channel's 80 Acres of Hell and First Invasion: The War of 1812. An avid historian, he has also written articles for various publications about American history, and painted a wall-sized mural for the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park Visitors Center. Wright is also the recipient of the prestigious Harrison Eiteljorg Purchase Award.

"A Frontiersman Wearing A Cocked Hat" by David Wright.

"A Seneca" by David Wright.

"A Ojibwa" by David Wright.

"A Shawnee" by David Wright.

"A Young Frontiersman" by David Wright.

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AND last but not least is John Buxton (1939-). Buxton studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California and was a commercial illustrator for 31 years, but for the last twenty years or more he has been producing Early American Art and Western Art, culminating in some of the finest images of the American Frontier that we have ever seen. His paintings are historically accurate in every way possible, just like his pals Robert Griffing, Steven White and David Wright's are. Buxton's artwork has also been used in documentary films, books, magazines and classrooms. 

"Distant Neighbors" by John Buxton.

"Grandfathers" by John Buxton.

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"Negotiations" by John Buxton.

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"Building trade and trust" by John Buxton.

"Secluded Pool" by John Buxton.

"The Great Falls of the Passaic" by John Buxton. This is a tremendous scene of Delaware Indians fishing in the Passaic River, in what is now New Jersey. Note the massive fish on the right side, possibly a sturgeon. I've always wanted to catch one of those monsters.

If you are interested in the frontier art of Steve White, Robert Griffing, David Wright and John Buxton, prints, giclees and original paintings can be obtained online either directly from the artists or from their gallery representatives. Two other excellent frontier artists of note, not featured in this post, are Doug Hall and Andrew Knez, Jr.

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ALLAN W. ECKERT was by all accounts a kind, caring, and generous man, and a heckuva writer, naturalist and historian who I had the pleasure of listening to at a book signing event here in Denver in 1992. I've attended hundreds of book signings and several pen & podiums, highlighted by authors such as Clive Barker, Ray Bradbury, James Lee Burke, Roger Ebert, Harlan Ellison, R. Buckminster Fuller, Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, Peter Straub, and Christopher Tolkien, but because of my fondness and respect for Eckert's Narratives of America series, his book signing talk has stood in my mind as one of the best ever.

"Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart."

                                                                                               --- Tecumseh

[© March, 2023, Jeffersen]