A Treasury of the World's Great Diaries

Main historical character is Robert Rogers, creator of 'Rogers' Rangers'. This irregular force of colonial soldiers fought alongside the British army in the French and Indian War (1754-63). Rogers specialized in Indian-style forest tactics, as opposed to the strict British open-field formations that proved disastrous in the early stages of the war. In Rogers, novelist Roberts found another example of a brilliant leader and out-of-the-box thinker who was opposed and dragged down by the jealousy and envy of lesser men. Ayn Rand made her literary debut ten years later with another hero in this mold, in The Fountainhead. So, when reading Roberts, one should remember that the historical characters were almost certainly not as heroic or despicable as their fictionalized counterparts.