A portrait of James Pike provides a definitive, multifaceted biography of the controversial Episcopal bishop, detailing his iconoclastic views on religion, his liberal influence on the church, his troubled personal life, and his mysterious death in Israel.

A Passionate Pilgrim: A Biography of Bishop James A. Pike

Biographies & Memoirs

Robertson, David M.

Historical

KNOPF

James A. Pike, the fifth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California, was a man of many faces. To some he was an iconoclast, a man decades ahead of his time who modernized the Church and rendered it more progressive and open to inquiry. To others he was a heretic, who polarized and desecrated the Church. Always controversial and charismatic, he took America by storm in the 1960s with his best-selling books, and his weekly television talk show, Dean Pike, which won him a cover story in Time. A Passionate Pilgrim is an illuminating biography of Pike, and an examination of the tragedies, triumphs, and difficulties that shaped his spectacular rise to fame and his mysterious death in the Israeli desert.

Leaders & Notable People

Vintage

Booth: A Novel

A gripping historical novel set amidst the confusion and chaos of the Civil War, Booth is the story of the only conspirator in the plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln who was not killed or executed--a young man who falls under the spell of the charismatic and captivating world-famous stage actor, and is gradually sucked into the vortex of Booth's insidious plans. The novel opens in 1916, the last year of narrator John Surratt's life. Surratt, who has spent the years since Lincoln's death as an obscure shipping clerk, is approached by D.W. Griffith to read from his Civil War diary in Griffith's movie Birth of a Nation. As Surratt reads over his diary for the first time in fifty years, the reader returns to the tumultuous days of 1864, and a chance encounter between Surratt and John Wilkes Booth. Booth, a larger-than-life personality whose appetites, fame, and sheer force of will bedazzle everyone around him, helps to secure Surratt a position as the assistant to renowned photographer Alexander Gardner. Over the following weeks, Booth continues to lavish attention on Surratt, slowly drawing him bit by bit into his web of intrigue. By the time Surratt discovers the desperate nature of Booth's true intentions, it is too late, and he finds himself caught up in a firestorm of violence that shatters forever his insulated life and mild ambitions. Based on the actual historical record of the plot to kill Lincoln, and illustrated with photographs of the conspirators and their execution, the novel is filled with the kind of detail of nineteenth-century architecture, photography, and day-to-day bustle that brings Civil War Washington vividly to life. A powerful evocation of a dangerous, chaotic, and tragic time, Booth is the compulsively readable story of the most infamous assassination in our history, as well as a riveting portrait of an enigmatic figure who continues to haunt the American imagination. Booth is a selection of both the Barnes and Noble "Discover Great New Writers" program and Borders' "Discover" program.

Literature & Fiction

United States

DOUBLEDAY

A gripping historical novel in the best selling tradition of The Alienist, Booth brings vividly to life a figure who continues to haunt the American imagination, John Wilkes Booth. Told from the perspective of John Surratt, the only conspirator in the plot to kill Abraham Lincoln who survived, the novel both chronicles the young, naive Surratt's tragic coming of age as he belatedly realizes the nature of the plot Booth has sucked him into, and illuminates the motivations and larger-than-life appetites and appeal of the charismatic and world famous stage actor.The novel opens in 1916, the year of the historical Surratt's death. Surratt has been approached by D.W. Griffith to appear in his movie Birth of a Nation, where Surratt is to read from his Civil War diary and recount the days leading to the assassination. At that point, the story flashes back to 1864, and John Surratt's encounter with Booth on the streets of Washington. As Surratt delves further into the diaries and transcripts, we see the spell Booth has cast on him growing stronger and stronger. And as we reach the end of this long days journey into night, Surratt reveals yet a further secret--the genuine diary that Booth left, explaining his actions and implicating others around him.Compulsively readable, and filled with brilliant period detail--as well as a dozen reproductions of actual photographs of the conspirators and their execution--Booth is powerful evocation of a dangerous, chaotic and tragic time in our history, a story that continues to resonate to this day.

Genre Fiction

Random House Audio |

On July 2, 1822, Denmark Vesey and five co-conspirators were hanged in a desolate marsh outside of Charleston, South Carolina. They had been betrayed by black informers during their attempt to set in motion the largest slave rebellion in the history of the United States--an effort astonishing in its level of organization and support. Nine thousand armed slaves and free blacks were to converge on Charleston, set the city aflame, seize the government arsenal, and then murder the entire white population of the city, sparing only the ship captains who would carry Vesey and his followers to Haiti or Africa. The attempted revolt was a significant episode in American history, yet it, and its leader, have been all but forgotten. In this balanced and gracefully written biography of Vesey--the first in many decades--David Robertson gives us a profile of this extraordinary man. He shows how, by preaching a doctrine of negritude combined with various religious elements, Vesey was able to attract large numbers of blacks to a messianic crusade for freedom. Robertson details the aftermath of the failed revolt, analyzes its social and political consequences, and articulates the essential, disturbing questions it poses to a racially and ethnically pluralistic society today.

Denmark Vesey: The Buried History of America's Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It

Community & Culture

Alfred.A. Knopf

Reloaded: An American Warning

ATTENTION!!! A NEWER EDITION IS AVAILABLE!ATTENTION!!! A NEWER EDITION IS AVAILABLE!Please see:RELOADED: An American Warning: SubCompact Edition

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

AuthorHouse

"A treasury of primary material about cases of witchcraft in East Lothian. This marvellous, vast compendium of transcribed documentation, with useful annotation and perceptive commentary, is a most welcome contribution to the study of Scottish witchcraft in the 16th and 17th centuries. Seasoned academic scholars of witchcraft will find much useful, challenging material - and read of witches and witchcraft cases that they have never come across before. Even with some familiarity with the cases that the author presents, it is fascinating to read different accounts given by different witnesses of the same case and the same alleged incidents. In addition to the annotated transcriptions there is a summary of James VI and I's short treatise on witchcraft, in the form of a dialogue, called: Daemonologie. And a long, closing chapter on the analysis and interpretation of witchcraft in East Lothian. I might not agree with every single claim that David Robertson makes - but I can heartily endorse the general tenor and commendable balance of his judgement. He says: 'We must avoid the "all or nothing" attitude, where either everything is true or everything is a farrago of ludicrous nonsense. We can accept what is probable, dismiss what is clearly impossible, but we should keep an open mind on the admittedly vast area in between'. That is an appropriate attitude with which to approach this remarkable and very fine book." -- from the Introduction by Hugh V. McLachlan

Goodnight My Servants All: The Sourcebook of East Lothian Witchcraft

History

Europe

Grimsay Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Robertson, David M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Robertson, David M.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Robertson, David M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Passionate Pilgrim: A Biography of Bishop James A. Pike

A Passionate Pilgrim: A Biography of Bishop James A. Pike

Booth: A Novel

Booth: A Novel

Denmark Vesey: The Buried History of America's Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It

Reloaded: An American Warning

Reloaded: An American Warning

Goodnight My Servants All: The Sourcebook of East Lothian Witchcraft