William Penn: A Life

William Penn: A Life

On March 4, 1681, King Charles II granted William Penn a charter for a new American colony. Pennsylvania was to be, in its founder's words, a bold "Holy Experiment" in religious freedom and toleration, a haven for those fleeing persecution in an increasingly intolerant England and across Europe. An activist, political theorist, and the proprietor of his own colony, Penn would become a household name in the New World, despite spending just four years on American soil. Though Penn is an iconic figure in both American and British history, controversy swirled around him during his lifetime. In his early twenties, Penn became a Quaker -- an act of religious as well as political rebellion that put an end to his father's dream that young William would one day join the English elite. Yet Penn went on to a prominent public career as a Quaker spokesman, political agitator, and royal courtier. At the height of his influence, Penn was one of the best-known Dissenters in England and walked the halls of power as a close ally of King James II. At his lowest point, he found himself jailed on suspicion of treason, and later served time in debtor's prison. Despite his importance, William Penn has remained an elusive character -- many people know his name, but few know much more than that. Andrew R. Murphy offers the first major biography of Penn in more than forty years, and the first to make full use of Penn's private papers. The result is a complex portrait of a man whose legacy we are still grappling with today. At a time when religious freedom is hotly debated in the United States and around the world, William Penn's Holy Experiment serves as both a beacon and a challenge. "Andrew Murphy's William Penn: A Life is a long overdue, revisionary interpretation of this icon in America's pantheon. Readers of all stripes will welcome this addition to their bookshelf of Americana." -- Journal of Religion "Excellent and highly readable...Andrew R. Murphy may well be the world's greatest authority on William Penn.... This authoritative biography thus represents the culmination of a long and deep engagement with the life and ideas of William Penn and the broader religious and political context in which he lived. It is a tremendous achievement―a definitive biography that will last for many years to come." -- American Historical Review "Andrew Murphy begins by portraying William Penn neither as a statue on a pedestal nor a cartoon on a cereal box but as an old man in a debtors' prison. He then unfolds the tale of an admirably complicated figure-a terrible businessman yet a brilliant colonial promoter, a confidant of kings yet a member of a despised sect, a man of deep spiritual conviction yet an fierce advocate of religious liberty. William Penn: A Life is a remarkable achievement." -- Daniel K. Richter , author of Before the Revolution: America's Ancient Pasts "Of all the colonial founders, William Penn is the most important and the least studied -- a complex, profound man consigned to caricature in the public mind. In the first full biography in almost half a century, Murphy has gone a long way to remedy this, showing Penn as a towering figure in England and its colonies. Eclipsing Penn's earlier biographers, Murphy mines a generation of research on Penn and the Quakers to give us a broad-gauged, highly readable biography that balances Penn's personal tribulations and financial difficulties with his brilliance as a defender of the Society of Friends, a spokesman for political and religious freedom, and a promoter of pacifism, inter-group comity, and representative government." -- Gary B. Nash , author of The Unknown American Revolution "A lively, engaging study of William Penn, meeting the highest standards of scholarship. Andrew Murphy expertly captures all sides of Penn's complex life and personality, including his idealism, his religious and political activism, his spendthrift and debt-ridden ways, and his multifarious wielding of power which brought him acclaim and opprobrium on both sides of the Atlantic. A magnificent accomplishment." -- Stephen W. Angell , editor of The Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies "Andrew Murphy's intricate and surprisingly personality-driven biography of Pennsylvania's founding weirdo William Penn is similar to many books on this year's list in that it's easily the new definitive work on its subject. Murphy ranges over the whole width of Penn's fascinating life in a confident and knowledgeable way no other biographer has ever approached." -- Open Letter Review "This is a highly informative, well thought out and heavily researched biography that also closely explains the economics, politics and religion of this period." -- Pennsylvania Literary Journal "For anyone desiring comprehensive knowledge of Penn's life, this is the book to read." -- Library Journal "Andrew Murphy's intricate and surprisingly personality-driven biography of Pennsylvania's founding weirdo William Penn i