 First edition cover | |
| Author | Katherine Howe |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical novel |
| Publisher | Hyperion |
Publication date | 9 June 2009 |
| Media type | Print Hardcover |
| Pages | 384 pp |
| ISBN | 1-4013-4090-3 |
| OCLC | 262886389 |
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (2009) is the first novel of American author Katherine Howe. It was published by VOICE, an imprint of Hyperion (publisher). [1]
It debuted at number two on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction Bestseller list on June 20, 2009. [2]
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane takes place in Cambridge, Salem, and Marblehead, Massachusetts, flashing back and forth between two time periods: during the Salem witch trials in 1692, and the summer of 1991. The latter was one year before events in Danvers and Salem to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the trials and honor the innocent victims.
Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie’s grandmother’s abandoned home near Salem, she can’t refuse. As Connie is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, she discovers an ancient key within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance (Hazeltine) Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest— to find out who this woman was and to unearth a rare artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge.
As she begins to discover the pieces of Deliverance’s harrowing story, Connie is haunted by visions of the long-ago witch trials. She begins to fear that she is more tied to Salem’s dark past than she could have ever imagined. [3]
The book entered the New York Times Bestseller list at #2. Carolyn See in The Washington Post wrote, "This charming novel is both a tale of New England grad-student life in 1991 and the Salem witch hunts in 1692. The year 1991 is important here because historical data were not yet entirely computerized." [4] It was a time when people were between technologies, and she likens it to the 1690s, before use of the scientific method. [4]
Emma Carbone for the New York Public Library wrote: "...[the book] has a lot of appeal for a variety of readers. It is also a gripping story with a very interesting plot....Howe has created a fascinating commentary on one of America's most compelling and most infamous periods in history with this debut novel." [5]
The book was ranked by USA Today as one of the 10 best novels of the year.
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, 19 of whom were executed by hanging. One other man, Giles Corey, died under torture after refusing to enter a plea, and at least five people died in jail.
Tituba was a Native American enslaved woman who was one of the first to be accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials of 1692–1693.
Bridget Bishop was the first person executed for witchcraft during the Salem witch trials in 1692. Nineteen were hanged, and one, Giles Corey, was pressed to death. Altogether, about 200 people were tried.
Sarah Good was one of the first three women to be accused of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials, which occurred in 1692 in colonial Massachusetts.
Rev. Francis Dane was baptized in Bishop's Stortford, England, and was probably born there.
Rebecca Nurse was a woman who was accused of witchcraft and executed by hanging in New England during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. She was fully exonerated fewer than twenty years later.
Cultural depictions of the Salem witch trials abound in art, literature and popular media in the United States, from the early 19th century to the present day. The literary and dramatic depictions are discussed in Marion Gibson's Witchcraft Myths in American Culture and see also Bernard Rosenthal's Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692
Abigail Hobbs was a girl of about 14-17 years old when she was arrested for witchcraft on April 18, 1692, along with Giles Corey, Mary Warren, and Bridget Bishop. Prior to living in Salem Village, she and her family had lived in Falmouth, Maine, the frontier of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, during a time when there were many attacks by the Wabanaki Native Americans. Her father William and mother, Deliverance Hobbs, were also both charged with witchcraft.
Sarah Wildes was wrongly convicted of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials and was executed by hanging. She maintained her innocence throughout the process, and was later exonerated. Her husband's first wife was a member of the Gould family, cousins of the Putnam family, the primary accusers, and court records document the family feuds which led to her persecution.
Elizabeth Howe was one of the accused in the Salem witch trials. She was found guilty and executed on July 19, 1692.
Elizabeth Hubbard is best known as the primary instigator of the Salem Witch Trials. Hubbard was 17 years old in the spring of 1692 when the trials began. In the 15 months the trials took place, 20 people were executed.
Margo Burns is a historian specializing in the Salem witch trials and related events, especially those in North Andover. She is an Associate Editor and Project Manager of the book Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt. She resides in New Hampshire.
Abigail Faulkner, sometimes called Abigail Faulkner Sr., was an American woman accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials in 1692. In the frenzy that followed, Faulkner's sister Elizabeth (Dane) Johnson (1641-1722), her sister-in-law Deliverance Dane, two of her daughters, two of her nieces, and a nephew, would all be accused of witchcraft and arrested. Faulkner was convicted and sentenced to death, but her execution was delayed due to pregnancy. Before she gave birth, Faulkner was pardoned by the governor and released from prison.
Katherine Howe is an American novelist who lives in New England and New York City. She specializes in historical novels which she uses to query ideas about "the contingent nature of reality and belief." Her debut novel was the New York Times Bestseller The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (2009), related to the Salem witch trials. Its success led to her being a guest on several TV news shows, as well as "Salem: Unmasking The Devil" on the National Geographic Channel.
Deliverance Dane was one of many women accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. She was born January 15th, 1653, her parents were Robert and Anna Hazeltine. She was from Andover, Massachusetts, and due largely to the work of her father-in-law, much of the hysteria that swept through Salem was halted in Andover.
Physick may refer to:
Mary Black was a slave of African descent in the household of Nathaniel Putnam of the Putnam family who was accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials. Nathaniel's nephew was Thomas Putnam, one of the primary accusers, though Nathaniel himself was skeptical and even defended Rebecca Nurse. Mary was arrested, indicted, and imprisoned, but did not go to trial, and was released by proclamation on January 21, 1693 [O.S. January 11, 1692]. She returned to Nathaniel's household after she was released, another indication of Nathaniel's view of the charges against her.
Margaret Scott was found guilty of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials and was executed by hanging on September 22, 1692. She was part of the last group to be executed, which also included Mary Eastey, Martha Corey, Ann Pudeator, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, Alice Parker, and Wilmot Redd. She was the only accused person from Rowley to be executed. As a lower-class, long-term widow, having lost several children in infancy, she was a prototypical witch candidate. When her husband, Benjamin, died, he left a very small estate and she, being unable to remarry, was reduced to begging, which invited resentment and suspicion. In this manner, her circumstances were comparable to fellow victim Sarah Good.
The Connecticut Witch Trials, also sometimes referred to as the Hartford witch trials, occurred from 1647 to 1663. They were the first large-scale witch trials in the American colonies, predating the Salem Witch Trials by nearly thirty years. John M. Taylor lists a total of 37 cases, 11 of which resulted in executions. The execution of Alse Young of Windsor in the spring of 1647 was the beginning of the witch panic in the area, which would not come to an end until 1670 with the release of Katherine Harrison.