A Sorrow In Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh
1992

This definitive biography of one of the most charismatic, courageous and intelligent Indian leaders ever, traces the life of Tecumseh and the culture and traditions of the Shawnee tribe from his birth in 1768 near the village of Chalahgawtha (vicinity of present Xenia, Ohio) to his death in the Battle of the Thames in Ontario in 1813, during the War of 1812. Distrustful of the whites and the way they have consistently broken treaties with the Indians, Tecumseh forms a great amalgamation of tribes who are to rise under his command at a given signal and drive the whites back eastward of the Alleghenies. But the astute and ambitions William Henry Harrison divines Tecumseh's great plan and thwarts it by provoking Tecumseh's younger brother, Tenskwatawa, into the Battle of Tippecanoe during Tecumseh's absence, with results so disastrous to the Indian cause that the amalgamation largely disintegrates. Tecumseh, with only a small number of followers remaining, has no choice then but to support the British in their struggle against the Americans in the War of 1812. Published in both hardcover and paperback editions and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in biography, it was a finalist for that honor, which ultimately went to the author of TRUMAN. Originally published in hardcover in 1991 by Bantam, New York City, the hardcover edition went out of print and those rights were purchased by Konecky Books, which has come out with their edition, still in print. The paperback edition by Bantam is still in print.

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