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In this volume, the stories written by John Hay are collected for the first time, with a substantial Introduction by Hay scholar George Monteiro. Included are "The Blood Seedling," "Shelby Cabell," "The Foster Brothers," "Kane and Abel," "Red, White, and Blue," and "The Minstrel," as well as additional manuscript material. Although Hay is best known as private secretary to Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State under Theodore Roosevelt, he was also a well-known writer whose literary works include the ten-volume Abraham Lincoln: A History (with John G. Nicolay), the novel The Bread-winners, poetry and the stories collected here.

Roger Williams (c. 1603-1683) is known as the founder of Rhode Island as a refuge for those who were seeking religious tolerance and for his advocacy of the land rights of Native Americans. This volume is the first to print the thirty-two poems that were included within the text of his Key into the Language of America (1643) as a collection of poetry eminently worthy of reading and study in itself. In his critical Introduction, poet and American Literature scholar George Monteiro makes the case for Williams as America's first poet in English.