On 7/22/99, Phyllis <[email protected]> wrote: >A kind lady has recommended that I read a fictionalized account of Dorcey >"The Diary of Dorcas Good-Child Witch of Salem" by Rose Earhart. I am in the >process of searching out this book. I haven't read it yet, but I do own a copy: "The Diary of Dorcas Good: Child Witch of Salem" is by Rose Earhart, published by Pendleton Books, NY, 1998. I got my hardcover copy at Borders Books right in Danvers (!), but you can obtain a copy from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1893221008 --Margo - ------------------------------------------------- from inside the dustjacket: The Diary of Dorcas Good is based on actual events, documented and preserved by the City of Salem, Massachusetts in the form of the original trial manuscripts. The novel, in diary form, tells the story of Dorcas Good, a four year old child accused of witchcraft along with her mother and several other women during the hysteria of 1692. It is, in all probability, the first documented case of child abuse in this country. The saga follows Dorcas through her imprisonment as a young child, to her mother being led to the gallows and on to her young adult years and the abuse that she suffered at the hands of her jailers and especially from her own father. Rose Earhart allows the reader to experience the flavor of life in 1692 Salem including all of the difficulties and struggles of everyday life. She manages to portray with amazing clarity and passion the accounts of the horrific injustices and degrading circumstances of living on the edge of society that Dorcas and her mother, Sarah, had to endure even before the witch hysteria began. The Diary of Dorcas Good finally tells the real story of the savagery and terror of the Salem Witch Trials. About the Author Rose Earhart holds degrees in both Psychology and Philosophy. She has been a principle dancer with the Chicago City Ballet, a teacher, an actress (with stage, TV and movie credits) and a newspaper columnist. She prides herself as beihg an activist for children's rights. The old Victorian house where Rose lives with her family in Salem, Massachusetts, is a nightly haven to Salemites, both ghostly and real. - ------------------------------------------------- from the Amazon.com website (apparently posted by the author): The author, Rose Earhart , [email protected] , February 26, 1999 Salem, Massachusetts is haunted. There have been stories and legends about Salem's ghosts for centuries. Long before Roger Conant led English settlers to the rocky coast of New England, Salem's Indians spoke of spirits, both good and evil, who walked amongst them. Nathaniel Hawthorne was a direct descendant to that old witch hanger, Judge John Hathorne, and a true believer. He actually spent a great deal of time with one of Salem's ghosts. There is an old private library in Salem called the Salem Athenaeum which has been in existence since the early Eithteenth Century. Nathaniel Hawthorne was a member and loved to spend snowy winter afternoons snuggled in a chair by the roaring fire, reading a favorite book, or making notes for his next short story. There was an old gentleman who often sat in a soft leather chair opposite Hawthorne, reading and occasionally muttering something to the young writer. One day Hawthorne noted to the head librarian that he hadn't seen the old man in over a week. The librarian looked at Hawthorne, first in confusion, and then nodded his head. "Oh, that was our ghost," said the librarian with a wry smile. "I suppose he's decided to rest for a while. He comes and goes as he pleases." Nathaniel Hawthorne also believed in witch's curses. The famous curse that his character, hanged witch Matthew Maule, lay upon his chief accuser, Colonel Pyncheon and all his descendants, is the very heart of Hawthornes's wonderful HOUSE OF SEVEN GABLES. Maule points a dying finger at Colonel Pyncheon and cries, "God will give him blood to drink." THE DIARY OF DORCAS GOOD speaks of the actual fact that lies beneath Hawthorne's fiction. It was Dorcas' mother, Sarah Good, who placed the original blood curse on Salem when Sarah said to Nicholas Noyes, "You are a liar. I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink. Several years later Noyes died of an internal hemorrhage. He was bleeding from the mouth when they found him. He died as Hawthorne's fictional Colonel Pyncheon died, of the witch's curse. Dorcas was a real little girl, the forth female and first child of Salem to be arrested for witchcraft. Her mother and father, Sarah and William, were also real as were Rebecca Nurse and her sisters and the other women who shared Dorcas' cold, damp cell. The pirate, Captain Jack Quelch, was hanged on a balmy June day in 1704 and left behind his undiscovered treasure. It is said that later there were several silver bars discovered by a Yankee farmer. Who's to say if the story is true? But the farmer did happen to live on a small island off Salem's shores, an island that Jack Quelch knew well. As for the ghosts. There have been many sightings in the City of Salem. Both the History Channel and the Arts and Entertainment Network have documented the souls that still roam Salem's streets. Perhaps the spirit of Dorcas Good will rest easier now that her story has finally been told. I hope so.