Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker

"So adequate a combination of ability and of interest, of timeliness and of permanency, or criticism and description, of fiction and of history, and finally, of literature and or art." -Boston Herald

"Silas Weir Mitchell (born February 15, 1829; died January 4, 1914), was the distinguished physician and man of letters. He was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and in 1850 received his degree of M. D. from Jefferson Medical College, and his eminence in his profession was recognized by degrees and honors from the University of Bologna, Harvard, Edinburgh University, Princeton, Toronto and many other institutions and societies. He made an exhaustive study of the diseases of the nervous system and their treatment, of the poisons of serpents and numerous medical subjects. In 1880 he began the publication of tales, essays and poems that were to make him as famous as a writer as a physician. His first long novel, 'Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker,' published in 1897, when he was sixty-eight years old, assured his literary success; and the many book that followed from his pen found an ever increasing number of readers the world over." -Scots and Scots' Descendants in America

"An absorbing story of the life of a 'free' Quaker during the latter half of the last century in Pennsylvania. Hugh Wynne, who was one of Washington's officers, was brought up a strict Quaker, but afterwards became a 'free' Quaker....The story of his career is set forth in attractive style. The author has drawn sharp distinctions between the various modes of life in America during the eighteenth century. Hugh Wynne's father was a rigid Quaker, and his house was a model home, except that beautiful Mrs. Wynne, who was of French descent, was livelier than the usual type of Quakeress. Hugh's aunt, on the other hand, was not a member of the sect, and her house was the gay rendezvous of the British officers stationed in the town. We are introduced to many well-known historic personages, and are shown clearly how the crisis came about which caused the conflict which ended in the separation of the American colonies from the Mother Country. We are also shown in a rapid masterly manner what sort of people the colonists of those days were, and how in the upper circles of society the manners and customs of the English Court were kept up. It was the day of powder and wig, of knee-breeches and hoops, when men bowed low and kissed the ladies' hands and made use of flowery speech. Dr. Mitchell has made full use of these picturesque materials in a volume which most English people will read with particular pleasure." -The Publishers' Circular and Booksellers' Record

"From its opening chapters, with their quaint pictures of Quaker society in Philadelphia, to the stirring episodes on the War of Independence which bring it to a dramatic close, it is throughout excellent....Dr. Weir Mitchell has made his story humanly interesting, and has revived for us the picturesque times in which these people lived, their personalities, their surroundings, their modes of thought....Moreover, as a story of adventure and incident alone, 'Hugh Wynne' would be well worth reading. Studiously quiet in his method for the most part, the author quite rises to the needs of the situation when the period of the war is reached, and sends the action briskly along, with some fine, strenuous descriptive writing which shows him as adept in this part of his work as in the more peaceful scenes of the earlier chapters. Since the publication of 'In the Valley,' no better novel of its kind has appeared." -The Outlook