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The Prospering
Youngest daughter of an 18th century New England pioneer family tells of the founding of the Stockbridge Indian mission.
372 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1967
346 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth George Speare
20 books1,452 followersI was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, on November 21, 1908. I have lived all my life in New England, and though I love to travel I can't imagine ever calling any other place on earth home. Since I can't remember a time when I didn't intend to write, it is hard to explain why I took so long getting around to it in earnest. But the years seemed to go by very quickly. In 1936 I married Alden Speare and came to Connecticut. Not till both children were in junior high did I find time at last to sit down quietly with a pencil and paper. I turned naturally to the things which had filled my days and thoughts and began to write magazine articles about family living. Then one day I stumbled on a true story from New England history with a character who seemed to me an ideal heroine. Though I had my first historical novel almost by accident it soon proved to be an absorbing hobby."
Elizabeth George Speare (1908-1994) won the 1959 Newbery Medal for THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND, and the 1962 Newbery Medal for THE BRONZE BOW. She also received a Newbery Honor Award in 1983, and in 1989 she was presented with the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for her substantial and enduring contribution to children’s literature.
Elizabeth George Speare (1908-1994) won the 1959 Newbery Medal for THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND, and the 1962 Newbery Medal for THE BRONZE BOW. She also received a Newbery Honor Award in 1983, and in 1989 she was presented with the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for her substantial and enduring contribution to children’s literature.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 26, 2020
I am not really sure where to begin with this book. I feel strangely moved and frustrated at the same time. I can't imagine how anyone else would feel reading it; I only know that it feels uniquely, frustratingly mine.
Here is the thing:
I love Elizabeth George Speare.
When people ask me what my favorite book is, I usually name The Witch of Blackbird Pond. My Mom read it out loud to me when I was 11-years-old. I have re-read it so many times since that I have destroyed two copies. I think I currently have 3 copies of the book on my shelf. If I stumbled upon another copy at Goodwill, I'd probably buy it. The Witch of Blackbird Pond shaped a part of me and a way I view the world. Or maybe it simply represents a pinnacle in my education, an easy to point to book that actually represents hundreds of books re-read and loved becuase we used Sonlight Curriculum.
In truth, all Elizabeth George Speare books shaped me. Calico Captive remains a beloved favorite. The Sign of the Beaver got several re-reads and even The Bronze Bow hit me at a different level.
Little wonder I marked her final novel as to-read back in 2010. I just never guessed how hard it would be to get my hands on a copy. It took attending a major university and an inter-library loan to finally locate it. But I finally got it! And initially, it felt heady.
These words I knew. This author...this formatting of sentences...each felt like my beloved favorite novel, but different. Good different. Weird different. And then I realized it was a coming of age story.
I loathe coming of age stories.
Living through my own teenage angst was more than enough, thankyouverymuch. I have no interest in reliving the angst through someone else, even someone who lived 300 years ago. Angst is angst.
But still. Elizabeth George Speare wrote it. So I forced myself to keep reading.
I don't think I ever reached an easy pace with this novel.
Almost from the start, I read because I was forcing myself to, not because I felt any level of expectation about What Would Come Next. This was not a fun read. Coming of age novels rarely are. And unlike The Witch of Blackbird Pond or other favored novels set around this era, the heroine's coming of age does not mirror America's coming of age. This is much more tangled and nuanced. The heroine's coming of age mirrors the town's coming of age. Her failure mirrors the town's failure
It is poignant and painful and I really kind of hate it but I also deeply respect how this book carries out its themes. The only way I can think to describe it is to contrast it once again with The Witch of Blackbird Pond. One of the most memorable scenes in that book for me is where Kit realizes the inward strength and independence of the men who settled the Massachusetts Bay colonies. (And she realizes that Nat has the same inward strength and that she can lean on it AND LET ME TELL YOU THAT IS THE HEIGHTS OF ROMANCE WHEN YOU ARE 13.)
This is the opposite of that. Or maybe I should say, it shows the dark side of that strength. It shows the inflexibility of their determination. It shows how their unwillingness to understand the local tribes caused so much bitterness.
Far from telling a story of American exceptionalism, The Prospering jumps squarely into the painful gray area and revels in it.
I am not saying it makes the settlers out to be villains. Far from it, our heroine clearly sympathizes with her Father and the other people trying to "civilize" the wilderness. But she questions it.
I think most powerfully, the story really allows her to question both the motives of those who settled for financial reasons (the farmers like her family) and those who came to serve as missionaries. This is a side of the early Americas I never knew about. In fact, if it wasn't for the long list of biographies and letters at the end, I'd be half tempted to think Elizabeth George Speare made it up! Her descriptions of the mission and the pastors' attempt to walk the balance of saving souls and teaching English sounded like something I'd read from missionaries working with tribes in Papua New Guinea today.
In this way, the description of the mission also felt weirdly reminiscent to me, because I grew up on missionary stories. I devoured them. And this was also...weirdly...a missionary story. Like I would read as an 11-year-old alongside The Witch of Blackbird Pond.
The references to Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening felt even more trippy. Being a good Generation Joshua/Home School Legal Defense kid, I did all their online courses about civics and government. Or I tried. Admittedly, I never got past the one on Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening. I kept zoning out. But I tried. Oh, how I tried. And that is another part of my own personal angst that feels so weirdly mirrored in this novel.
Even the almost oddly extensive debate about Arminianism and Calvinism was like something plucked from my high school years.
I like to say that I get my reading tastes from my grandmothers. One of my grandmas only reads bodice rippers. The other only reads theologians from the 1700s. I float between the two.
You probably have not met my theology reading grandma, but if you had, she would have read you a long lecture about Arminianism and Calvinism. It is one of her Pet Issues. (Her other favorites include Why Gulf Shrimp Is Better Than Farm-Raised Shrimp and The Difference Between a Cook and a Chef. Waiters beware.) At any rate, it is one I have heard many times so my jaw nearly dropped when it became one of the overriding themes of the book.
But even if it wasn't for my Grandma, I'd be shocked because being the nerdy political and theologically interested teenager that I was, I frequently joined online forum debates about Arminianism and Calvinism with other teenagers. (Thank God for the internet. I would not have any friends without it.) This was as much a part of my coming of age as...well, the heroine's.
And that is why I say I read this book and I can't even begin to imagine how it would sound to anyone else.
So many elements of my own coming of age teen years intertwine in unexpected ways within this book: Elizabeth George Speare, missionary stories, amazing and detailed historical research, theological debates. The only thing I didn't share with the story was a painfully awkward one-sided crush on a guy who didn't know I existed. (Something coming of age novels lead me to believe is a regular ole right of passage that I somehow missed but I still cringe every time I read about it.)
This was an uncomfortable read. I like my books happy. I like minimal angst. I like happily-ever-after. And I can't promise you will get any of that with this book.
But you will get something potentially more precious. A contrast to the two extremes I often see. On the one hand, it does not preach of patriotism and Why American Settlers Were The Best. On the other, it does not fly in the opposite direction and villainize the white settlers. It shows both sides--the good and the bad and how complicatedly intertwined they are. It calls the earnest young missionaries saints, and then reveals how hard it is to live with a saint. It is incredibly well-researched and yet the research only adds to the story. The book feels real because Elizabeth George Speare writes about real people.
My Final Thoughts
I frequently wondered as I read this book why I had such trouble tracking it down. How could the other books by this author be so beloved and this one so ignored? I think I found the answer in her bio on Goodreads. In 1989, Elizabeth George Speare was presented with the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for her substantial and enduring contribution to children’s literature.
In other words, her other, more popular books are children's literature. They can be read by an 11-year-old. I am not sure 11-year-old me would have known what to do with The Prospering. I'm not even sure 18-year-old me would have known what to do with it. Strictly content-wise it is perfectly fine. It is perfectly clean, maybe even moreso than most coming of age novels. I suppose even theme-wise, I could have grasped it. Not at 11, but maybe at 18. But even then I would have missed a lot of the maturity and nuance of the story. This really feels more like an adult book.
But I really can't imagine many adults bothering with it. It is too heavy, for one. Even I forced myself though it and I love Elizabeth George Speare. It is uncomfortable. It is dense with historical references that mostly went over my head. (Take references to John Edwards's daughter who married one Aaron Burr. With the soundtrack from Hamilton playing in my mind, I could hum Wait For It and appreciate the reference. But without it? What a tangential thing to reference three times!)
I do think, though, that given a proper chance, many people would appreciate this novel. It is masterful. Complex. Weirdly intense in low key ways. I felt the urge to figure out the Enneagram numbers of all the characters. (Abigail is a 1 for sure. Eph a 9. John a 2??)
I feel the urge to get a forum post going to discuss this further. At while we are at it...Arminianism and Calvinism anyone?
Here is the thing:
I love Elizabeth George Speare.
When people ask me what my favorite book is, I usually name The Witch of Blackbird Pond. My Mom read it out loud to me when I was 11-years-old. I have re-read it so many times since that I have destroyed two copies. I think I currently have 3 copies of the book on my shelf. If I stumbled upon another copy at Goodwill, I'd probably buy it. The Witch of Blackbird Pond shaped a part of me and a way I view the world. Or maybe it simply represents a pinnacle in my education, an easy to point to book that actually represents hundreds of books re-read and loved becuase we used Sonlight Curriculum.
In truth, all Elizabeth George Speare books shaped me. Calico Captive remains a beloved favorite. The Sign of the Beaver got several re-reads and even The Bronze Bow hit me at a different level.
Little wonder I marked her final novel as to-read back in 2010. I just never guessed how hard it would be to get my hands on a copy. It took attending a major university and an inter-library loan to finally locate it. But I finally got it! And initially, it felt heady.
These words I knew. This author...this formatting of sentences...each felt like my beloved favorite novel, but different. Good different. Weird different. And then I realized it was a coming of age story.
I loathe coming of age stories.
Living through my own teenage angst was more than enough, thankyouverymuch. I have no interest in reliving the angst through someone else, even someone who lived 300 years ago. Angst is angst.
But still. Elizabeth George Speare wrote it. So I forced myself to keep reading.
I don't think I ever reached an easy pace with this novel.
Almost from the start, I read because I was forcing myself to, not because I felt any level of expectation about What Would Come Next. This was not a fun read. Coming of age novels rarely are. And unlike The Witch of Blackbird Pond or other favored novels set around this era, the heroine's coming of age does not mirror America's coming of age. This is much more tangled and nuanced. The heroine's coming of age mirrors the town's coming of age. Her failure mirrors the town's failure
It is poignant and painful and I really kind of hate it but I also deeply respect how this book carries out its themes. The only way I can think to describe it is to contrast it once again with The Witch of Blackbird Pond. One of the most memorable scenes in that book for me is where Kit realizes the inward strength and independence of the men who settled the Massachusetts Bay colonies. (And she realizes that Nat has the same inward strength and that she can lean on it AND LET ME TELL YOU THAT IS THE HEIGHTS OF ROMANCE WHEN YOU ARE 13.)
This is the opposite of that. Or maybe I should say, it shows the dark side of that strength. It shows the inflexibility of their determination. It shows how their unwillingness to understand the local tribes caused so much bitterness.
Far from telling a story of American exceptionalism, The Prospering jumps squarely into the painful gray area and revels in it.
I am not saying it makes the settlers out to be villains. Far from it, our heroine clearly sympathizes with her Father and the other people trying to "civilize" the wilderness. But she questions it.
I think most powerfully, the story really allows her to question both the motives of those who settled for financial reasons (the farmers like her family) and those who came to serve as missionaries. This is a side of the early Americas I never knew about. In fact, if it wasn't for the long list of biographies and letters at the end, I'd be half tempted to think Elizabeth George Speare made it up! Her descriptions of the mission and the pastors' attempt to walk the balance of saving souls and teaching English sounded like something I'd read from missionaries working with tribes in Papua New Guinea today.
In this way, the description of the mission also felt weirdly reminiscent to me, because I grew up on missionary stories. I devoured them. And this was also...weirdly...a missionary story. Like I would read as an 11-year-old alongside The Witch of Blackbird Pond.
The references to Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening felt even more trippy. Being a good Generation Joshua/Home School Legal Defense kid, I did all their online courses about civics and government. Or I tried. Admittedly, I never got past the one on Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening. I kept zoning out. But I tried. Oh, how I tried. And that is another part of my own personal angst that feels so weirdly mirrored in this novel.
Even the almost oddly extensive debate about Arminianism and Calvinism was like something plucked from my high school years.
I like to say that I get my reading tastes from my grandmothers. One of my grandmas only reads bodice rippers. The other only reads theologians from the 1700s. I float between the two.
You probably have not met my theology reading grandma, but if you had, she would have read you a long lecture about Arminianism and Calvinism. It is one of her Pet Issues. (Her other favorites include Why Gulf Shrimp Is Better Than Farm-Raised Shrimp and The Difference Between a Cook and a Chef. Waiters beware.) At any rate, it is one I have heard many times so my jaw nearly dropped when it became one of the overriding themes of the book.
But even if it wasn't for my Grandma, I'd be shocked because being the nerdy political and theologically interested teenager that I was, I frequently joined online forum debates about Arminianism and Calvinism with other teenagers. (Thank God for the internet. I would not have any friends without it.) This was as much a part of my coming of age as...well, the heroine's.
And that is why I say I read this book and I can't even begin to imagine how it would sound to anyone else.
So many elements of my own coming of age teen years intertwine in unexpected ways within this book: Elizabeth George Speare, missionary stories, amazing and detailed historical research, theological debates. The only thing I didn't share with the story was a painfully awkward one-sided crush on a guy who didn't know I existed. (Something coming of age novels lead me to believe is a regular ole right of passage that I somehow missed but I still cringe every time I read about it.)
This was an uncomfortable read. I like my books happy. I like minimal angst. I like happily-ever-after. And I can't promise you will get any of that with this book.
But you will get something potentially more precious. A contrast to the two extremes I often see. On the one hand, it does not preach of patriotism and Why American Settlers Were The Best. On the other, it does not fly in the opposite direction and villainize the white settlers. It shows both sides--the good and the bad and how complicatedly intertwined they are. It calls the earnest young missionaries saints, and then reveals how hard it is to live with a saint. It is incredibly well-researched and yet the research only adds to the story. The book feels real because Elizabeth George Speare writes about real people.
My Final Thoughts
I frequently wondered as I read this book why I had such trouble tracking it down. How could the other books by this author be so beloved and this one so ignored? I think I found the answer in her bio on Goodreads. In 1989, Elizabeth George Speare was presented with the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for her substantial and enduring contribution to children’s literature.
In other words, her other, more popular books are children's literature. They can be read by an 11-year-old. I am not sure 11-year-old me would have known what to do with The Prospering. I'm not even sure 18-year-old me would have known what to do with it. Strictly content-wise it is perfectly fine. It is perfectly clean, maybe even moreso than most coming of age novels. I suppose even theme-wise, I could have grasped it. Not at 11, but maybe at 18. But even then I would have missed a lot of the maturity and nuance of the story. This really feels more like an adult book.
But I really can't imagine many adults bothering with it. It is too heavy, for one. Even I forced myself though it and I love Elizabeth George Speare. It is uncomfortable. It is dense with historical references that mostly went over my head. (Take references to John Edwards's daughter who married one Aaron Burr. With the soundtrack from Hamilton playing in my mind, I could hum Wait For It and appreciate the reference. But without it? What a tangential thing to reference three times!)
I do think, though, that given a proper chance, many people would appreciate this novel. It is masterful. Complex. Weirdly intense in low key ways. I felt the urge to figure out the Enneagram numbers of all the characters. (Abigail is a 1 for sure. Eph a 9. John a 2??)
I feel the urge to get a forum post going to discuss this further. At while we are at it...Arminianism and Calvinism anyone?
February 21, 2024
Liza is seven when her father packs up the family and moves them all to a new Indian Mission on the edge of “settled” land in Massachusetts. She is plain, unremarkable, and utterly uninterested in the demands of proper feminine society. Instead, she goes running, unwanted, after a brother and his friends, only to become utterly lost and require rescuing by the chief of the local Stockbridge tribe. Liza is a child, young enough to acquire the language of the tribe and to make her first—perhaps only—true female friend out of the chief’s daughter, Catherine.
And this is the beginning.
The Prospering is a coming of age story, as well as the story of a community. The heroine, her family, and many of the characters are genuine historical figures. Through their lives walks the famous hellfire & brimstone preacher, Jonathan Edwards, as well as a number of missionary figures from the time period. Liza is at once part of the conflicts, naivete, and sins of her era and at the same time a voice apart.
Now and then in one’s reading life, one comes across a surreal surprise; and The Prospering is one of those experiences for me.
Elizabeth George Speare’s The Witch of Blackbird Pond is one of my favorite books. I discovered it in the 5th grade, a couple years after a teacher had read my class The Sign of the Beaver. Shortly after reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond, I found Calico Captive on a shelf and devoured it as well. But I had/have never read The Bronze Bow, which by all appearances has a very different setting and subject matter. I recently decided that I should rectify this deficit.
However, while looking into ordering it, I decided to check out the author’s profile on Goodreads and found that she had written this other, apparently much less well-known, book set in a location and time period much closer to those that originally drew me toward the author. The Prospering is a slower read (almost 400 pages), follows the heroine beyond that of a teenager, and is probably from a modern publishing perspective, centered on a more troubling subject area; but still, it’s a rich reading experience. I am glad to have discovered it when I did.
And this is the beginning.
The Prospering is a coming of age story, as well as the story of a community. The heroine, her family, and many of the characters are genuine historical figures. Through their lives walks the famous hellfire & brimstone preacher, Jonathan Edwards, as well as a number of missionary figures from the time period. Liza is at once part of the conflicts, naivete, and sins of her era and at the same time a voice apart.
Now and then in one’s reading life, one comes across a surreal surprise; and The Prospering is one of those experiences for me.
Elizabeth George Speare’s The Witch of Blackbird Pond is one of my favorite books. I discovered it in the 5th grade, a couple years after a teacher had read my class The Sign of the Beaver. Shortly after reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond, I found Calico Captive on a shelf and devoured it as well. But I had/have never read The Bronze Bow, which by all appearances has a very different setting and subject matter. I recently decided that I should rectify this deficit.
However, while looking into ordering it, I decided to check out the author’s profile on Goodreads and found that she had written this other, apparently much less well-known, book set in a location and time period much closer to those that originally drew me toward the author. The Prospering is a slower read (almost 400 pages), follows the heroine beyond that of a teenager, and is probably from a modern publishing perspective, centered on a more troubling subject area; but still, it’s a rich reading experience. I am glad to have discovered it when I did.
November 19, 2025
This is an old book that's been in my family since it first came out in the 1960's. I remember reading it way back then when I was barely a teenager. It's a fictionalized account of the beginnings of Stockbridge, Mass when the Williams family uproots from the Boston area to help John Sergeant integrate the Native Americans with the white population. The first half of the book was more "social" whereas the 2nd half was more "political." Thus I much preferred the 1st half. If I had more knowledge of all the various wars of that era (there were a lot!) it may have held my interest more. This is a great book for anyone in the Stockbridge area interested in local history. I visited the Mission House many years ago (maybe twice?) and hope to go again.
July 4, 2025
I kept waiting for the big conflict or drama that was hinted at but it felt like it never came.
February 25, 2010
I didn't enjoy this book...it was okay...I think maybe even The Sign of the Beaver was better and I hated that book. I love two of the other books she wrote: The Witch of Blackbird Pond and Calico Captive. I just didn't like this one.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews