When William Bradford's Of Plimmoth Plantation (the title he himself gave the work) was first published from his manuscript as History of Plymouth Plantation (1856), it was immediately recognized as a uniquely valuable historical record and almost as quickly seen as one of the finest examples of seventeenth-century American literature. The intervening years have not seen any lessening of its historical importance to scholars, although there have been different opinions about the ultimate validity of Bradford's view of his fellow Pilgrims. More interesting, its appreciation as a major literary work has continued to grow. Hailed by Kenneth Murdock as an "American classic" and by Peter Gay as an "authentic masterpiece," Of Plimmoth Plantation has, by virtue of the imaginative richness and vision with which it comprehends the facts of emigration and settlement, become one of the essential texts for anyone wishing to understand the American experience.

Bradford's literary reputation...