Summary of Ivan Doig's Winter Brothers

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 James Swan was a diarist who lived in North Carolina during the American Revolution. His journal covers the period from the 1760s to the 1790s, and it’s full of neat details about everyday life in North Carolina in the 18th century. His diary is available online. I find him to be a fascinating character, and I think that you will, too, if you read his story in its entirety. While I may be less familiar with his story than most people are, I think I can give a fairly accurate summary of his life and times. James Swan was born in 1728 in North Carolina, the son of a poor farmer named John Swan (or Swann). He got his start as a farmer himself, and by the time of the Revolutionary War he had become an established landowner, owning about 1,000 acres. He married Elizabeth Johnson in 1753, and their first child was born in 1754. By this time, he had acquired enough property to qualify for membership in the local militia.

#2 James Swan was a diarist who lived in North Carolina during the American Revolution. His journal covers the period from the 1760s to the 1790s, and it’s full of neat details about everyday life in North Carolina in the 18th century.

#3 James Swan was a diarist who lived in North Carolina during the American Revolution. His journal covers the period from the 1760s to the 1790s, and it’s full of neat details about everyday life in North Carolina in the 18th century.

#4 James Swan was a diarist who lived in North Carolina during the American Revolution. His journal covers the period from the 1760s to the 1790s, and it’s full of neat details about everyday life in North Carolina in the 18th century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Sep 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9798350030945

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I have always felt a pull toward James Gilchrist Swan, who lived in Maine during the nineteenth century. He was a diarist who recorded his life, and I found his diaries fascinating.

#2

I decided to spend this winter with Swan and his diaries. It was a venture that I had mulled over for years, as I had become less headlong and more aware that I dwell in a community of time as well as of people.

#3

The Swan diaries are a collection of journals that were kept by James G. Swan, a pastor in the early 1900s. They are small enough to fit into the palm of a hand or a busy pocket. They record the weather, logs all ships that sail past his eyes, and much more.

#4

The simple stubborn dailiness of Swan’s achievement is even more impressive than the various expended diary energy. It compares, for example, to a carpenter who hammers an hour’s hammerstrokes on the same framework each morning for forty years or a monk or nun who spends that span of time tending the same vineyard.

#5

Swell was a chieftain of the Makah tribe of Cape Flattery, Washington Territory. He was also Swan’s best-regarded friend among the coastal tribes of Washington Territory, and he had painted Swan’s name and a horse on his canoe sail.

#6

I could not help but feel that I would gladly give a pull at the rope that would hang Swan. His object was not to punish or kill Indians, but to recover property.

#7

I was asked to paint the Tomanawas boards, which were the grave’s monument for the Makah tribe. These were cedar tableaus of magic that would stand as the grave's monument.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The author was reading Swan by Elizabeth Strout, when the wind started to gust. The neighborhood’s lion-colored cat, inspector general of such weather, all morning had been snoozing outside the window.

Insights from Chapter 3

#1

The perimeters