The Fort Plain Museum & Historical Park has announced the winner of their inaugural James Kirby Martin Book Prize, Jane E. Calvert’s Penman of the Founding: A Biography of John Dickinson (Oxford Univ. Press, 2024). The Prize is given in honor of Martin, an 18th century historian and museum supporter who died unexpectedly this year. Martin’s posthumously published final book, also on the American Revolution, has also just been released.
Quaker pacifist John Dickinson (1732-1808) of Pennsylvania and Delaware, one of the wealthiest men in the colonies, was an important early leader of the resistance to British rule before the outbreak of the American revolution and among the first to advocate civil disobedience as a form of protest.
In fact, to many, he was the most prominent figure in the struggle for independence, though his Quaker-influenced opposition to violence kept him from signing one of its most famous documents in July 1776.
Still, as the lead draftsman in all the national Congresses, and through his popular writing writing, Dickinson did more to promote the cause behind it than almost anyone else.
His influential and widely read “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania” educated colonists about their rights and instructed them in how to defend those rights in non-violent ways. In essence he taught the colonists to think of themselves as Americans, united in a common cause.
Despite his refusal to sign the Declaration of Independence, he continued to serve the nation in a number of capacities – in Congress, as governor of Delaware and Pennsylvania, as president of the Annapolis Convention, as delegate to the Federal Convention, and as president of the Delaware constitutional convention.
Because of his close association with Quakerism, he also took stances unlike any other major figure of his day, making him among the first to advocate civil disobedience as a form of protest, freeing his slaves and embracing abolitionism, advocating rights for women, Indigenous people, prisoners, and the poor.
He nonetheless volunteered for active service in the Delaware militia during the War of Independence.
Early chroniclers and historians, seeking to create a patriotic narrative and taking their cues from his political enemies, cast him as a coward and Loyalist for not signing the Declaration.
Many later historians have simply accepted and echoed this distorted and dismissive view. Jane Calvert’s fascinating, authoritative and accessible biography, the first complete account of Dickinson’s life and work, restores him to a place of prominence in the nation’s formative years.
James Kirby Martin Book Prize Gala Set for Saturday
The Fort Plain Museum will present the James Kirby Martin Book Prize, and honor Martin’s life, at a gala on Saturday, October 18th at Crowne Plaza Albany – the Desmond Hotel, 660 Albany Shaker Road in Albany, NY.
Brian Mack of the Museum was this week’s guest on the Lake George Battlefield Moments podcast and shared James Kirby Martin’s story and discusses the event this Saturday night.
The gala program on Saturday will feature tributes to Martin and recognize both the Book Prize’s top honor and the runner-up. Jane E. Calvert will deliver an address, followed by an opportunity for audience questions.
More Gala information, including registration, can be found here.
About James Kirby Martin
James Kirby Martin earned his Ph.D. in American History at the University of Wisconsin and was Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Houston at the time he passed.
He held named visiting professorships at The Citadel and at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and was the author of a number of books including the award-winning Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary Hero: An American Warrior Reconsidered (1997) and A Respectable Army: The Military Origins of the Republic, 1763–1783 (co-authored with Mark Edward Lender).
In 2019 he published Insurrection: The American Revolution and Its Meaning (2019).
His last book, also written with Mark Edward Lender, is War Without Mercy: Liberty or Death in the American Revolution (Osprey Publishing, 2025), which draws on contemporary accounts to explore how and why the Revolutionary War descended into a brutal existential struggle.
Read more about the American Revolution in New York.
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