Letters by john Mason Peck - NIU Digital Projects

JOHN T. FLANAGAN 299
several publishers, & their books have a good run. I
yOU can make them a series that would be popular, &
bIe to you & them, but to do anything for anybody,
get the foolish & crazy notions out of your imagiof
"insults, " "de gred" [sic], and "slave. " You can
$5 per day in a series of books, and as to topics when
inventive power is exhausted, let me know & I will
of 20 more. There is a wide and exhaustless field in
alley to illustrate character, scenery & events. Stick
your stakes of "facts," as you would mark a new road,
the prairies, and let your immagination play round
. You might make a dozen books from the incidents,
you have witnessed yourself. Even "James Boxwas
a student of yours at Rock Spring, though that
Boxley had not sense enough to break a barometer.
what do you think of the flagelation [sic] I have given
alt for your good. Have I not dissected you-turned you
out, and made you look at your own .. in' ards' '?
will give you the ti tles of some of the books I expect
. Everyone will be matters of truth & reality- "facts
g but facts"-in the sense I have explained to you.
"The Indian Captive," or Life of John Tanner. 54
will illustrate Indian character.
"Father Clark," or the Pioneer of Missouri. This
up preaching, education, schools &c. from 1796.
"The Wreck of the Shepherdess "-4. "The Backq-irl
"-a true story in Crawford County, Illinois but
tllus.trate Daniel Parker & his tribe [word illegible].
PIOneer Mother," in which old mother Lemen &
will be the theme .
. The First Sunday School," in which Berry [?]
& the darkies will figure. 55 I can invent 100
al.l of which shall portray some distinct feature of
"T lIfe & character. And finally I can close the series
he Insult," or the man with a diseased imagination.
YOURS SINCERELY
J. M. PECK.
( 1780 ?-1 847) was captured by Indians and remained in their
years. He later served as interpreter for Schoolcraft and wrote his
o f hIS experiences.
as Berry Meachum ( 1789-1864) was born a slave, bought his own freedom
pastor of the First African Baptist Church in St. Louis.