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At age 83, Foyt, who has completed 60 marathons, lives in the active adult community of Rossmoor in Walnut Creek, California. He holds an AB and MBA from Stanford, and completed the degree work for a masters in historic preservation at the University of Georgia. The Mind of an American Revolutionary, Foyt's 12th novel is a surprising Historical Novel about one of the Lesser Known but Equally Important Founding Fathers who played a Vital Role in Financing the American Revolution with his own funds and yet ended up in Debtor’s Prison.
Reviewed by Raanan Geberer for Readers' Favorite
The Mind of an American Revolutionary by Jon Foyt takes place in Philadelphia on the eve of the American Revolution. A Hessian officer and proto-psychologist, Major Wilhelm von Lowenstein, interviews William Morris, one of the most prominent men in the colonies, to find out why someone of such wealth and status would consider rebelling against King and Country. (The Hessians served as mercenaries for the British). In between, and in the course of the interviews, we trace Morris’ life from his childhood in Liverpool to his apprenticeship in a Philadelphia mercantile firm to his becoming a partner in the firm. Because of the British government’s shabby treatment of the colonists, Morris becomes an enthusiastic advocate of colonial independence –although more because of a desire for free trade and the freedom from unfair taxes than because of a love of freedom itself (he’s vaguely bothered by slavery, but is still willing to profit from it).
In addition to the interesting plot, The Mind of an American Revolutionary is a great read because of its observations about colonial civilization. As he tells his partner, Thomas Willing, Morris doesn’t have an English private-school education and doesn’t speak in the accents of the upper classes, but that doesn’t matter in America, where there is more equal opportunity. Also in the new world, some of the traditional British morality breaks down – within a short time of his arrival in Pennsylvania, he beds down with several women, resulting in the birth of an out-of-wedlock child. There are also a number of interesting sub-plots – the wife of a general continuously tries to use her feminine wiles to get Morris to abandon his support of the revolution. Finally, the book offers some glimpses of other American revolutionaries, such as Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin. All in all, if you like historical fiction and are interested in the wind-up to the American Revolution, The Mind of an American Revolutionary is your book.
