A 'MUST HAVE' BOOK ON JAMESTOWN

‘Empires in the Forest: Jamestown and the Beginning of America” by Avery Chenoweth and Robert Llewellyn. 256 pages. Published by the Rivanna Foundation and distributed by the University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville. $49.95.

 Just in time for the holiday gift-giving season comes the book of the year or perhaps the decade on Jamestown. Certainly in the past few years, there has been non like it.

 It’s called “Empires in the Forest: Jamestown & the beginning of America” by Avery Chenoweth and Robert Llewellyn, with a thoughtful introduction by former Gov. Mark Warner.

 What makes this book so outstanding? For starters, it’s beautiful. And big, at about 13 by 11 1/2 inches, printed on heavy, slick paper stock. And the book is heavy, not something that will readily fit on the nightstand. However, its content will make it as difficult for the reader to put it down as it is to lift.

 The totally absorbing “historical fiction” (to use the author’s description) text by Avery Chenoweth describes the Chesapeake area and the people who lived there from the time a meteor crashed to create Chesapeake’s geology, long before humankind, to an epilogue that brings the reader up to the present. In addition to using the resources of dozens of volumes listed in the bibliography, Chenoweth takes an unusual psychological approach to tell the story. He explores the mindsets, as he understands them, of the major characters in the Jamestown story. 

 Chenoweth describes the relationships between the two chieftain brothers, Powhatan and Opechancanough, the trials and tribulations of John Smith with his English peers, as Smith thought of them, or his betters as his antagonists preferred to think. Of course, it includes Pocahontas and her relationships with John Smith and John Rolfe. The author’s story suggests she loved Smith but married Rolfe. Her love for Smith was unrequited. All this and more, told with a psychological flavor, makes for fascinating reading and a believable story.

 Consider one small quotation from the author’s important chapter on the early negotiations between the Indians and the colonists, and the challenges their different philosophies caused:

 “The Powhatan and other native peoples were concrete thinkers. Love meant love; promise meant promise. To them, the idea that someone might use love to kill, or use a promise to lie, was unheard of and alien. The Naturals, therefore, meant what they said and said what they meant, while the English were able to mean what they said, contingent upon changing their mind later.”

 Those English attitudes and philosophies continue today, only worse. Consider that the American English is now endowed with more than 150 words and phrases that are synonyms for “swindle.”

 Dozens of beautiful colored photographs of the action in the history of Jamestown and Virginia, taken by noted photographer Robert Llewellyn, add to the book’s interest and appeal.

 Lengthy acknowledgements at the end of the book list the names, in the style of film credits, of those who portray the people of the story. For example, three different Chickahominy young women become Pocahontas, from ages 9 to 19. As the book describes them: “Sierra Adkins brought sparkling intelligence and vivality to her role as the young Pocahontas with resolve, authority and tragedy.” Two full pages list the names of the other contributors, actors, sponsors, editors and so on. In most books, this is a skip-over section, but in this one, it is well worth reading.

 My one caveat about the photographs is that some of them could have used brief captions. Sure we know when we’re looking at Pocahontas at any age, but as an example, when is it Powhatan and when is it Opechancanough? Sometimes the text offers clues, but not always.

 Nevertheless, I recommend the book highly. It is beautifully done and in every sense of the word, a real work of art. And, despite having read at least a dozen other Jamestown books in recent years, I have found that this one, different and well worth reading twice, as I have already done. Congratulations to the author, photographer, editor and the publisher. Thank your for a great Christmas treat, something to be treasured and enjoyed for many years to come.

 More – Avery Chenoweth and Robert Llewellyn will hold a book-signing for  “Empires in the Forest” at 7 p.m. this Thursday, Dec. 14 in the Schell  Room of the Willimsburg Library.

Robert Shultis

The Virginia Gazette, Williamsburg