SOURCE: "Anonymity and Art in the Life and Death of That Reverend Man of God, Mr. Richard Mather," in American Literature, Vol. XLII, No. 4, January, 1971, pp.457-67.

In the following essay, Scheick examines Increase Mather's biography of his father, Richard Mather, paying particular attention to Increase's use of paternal imagery in a familial, spiritual, and communal sense.

It is true that in many respects the intention of New England Puritan biographies is identical to that of their sermons. Both reflect an attempt to convey religious instruction regarding the conduct of one's life on earth; both likewise seek to stimulate the reader to the practice of imitatio Christi, a practice discussed at length in numerous sermons as well as reflected through the exemplary lives of Puritan biographical subjects.¹ Consequently, seventeenth-century American biographies "aimed less at the modern ideal of accurate revelation of a personality than at the graphic portrayal...