Cotton (1640-99), pastor of the church at Plymouth from 1667 to 1697, wrote to famous and less-illustrious people through the New England colonies and in England herself. The hundreds of surviving letters compiled here begin in 1664 when he was a young divine trying to survive scandal, and proceed through his years of ministry at Plymouth to shortly before he died. They reveal his powerful family connections to the Mathers, Saltonstalls, and Rosseters, and provide details of life that would interest general social historians of the period as well as church historians. Historians McIntyre (State U. of New York-Potsdam) and Travers (U. of Massachusetts-Dartmouth) present the letters in chronological order divided into periods: failure in Connecticut 1662-64, Plymouth's new minister 1669-74, King Philip's War 1675-76, recovery and imperial politics 1676-80, New England and old England 1681-91, salary troubles in a contentious congregation, Clark's Island, King William's War 1689-97, letters to his children 1692-97, scandal in Plymouth 1697-98, leaving Massachusetts and exile in Carolina 1698-99. Abundant annotations explain allusions, identify people, and cite references for further information or for Cotton's quotations. The location of the letter is also cited. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)