Books: Pious Pioneers

SAINTS AND STRANGERS — George F. Willison—Reynal & Hitchcock ($3.50).

In a virgin land teeming with game, and beside waters teeming with fish, how did New England's Pilgrim Fathers manage nearly to starve to death?

From such original sources as Edward Winslow (the Pilgrim's chief spokesman) and Governor William Bradford, a Denver-born author and scholar named George Findlay Willison has pieced together a brisk history of the Plymouth colony which should go far toward answering questions like this one. His Saints and Strangers is a far cry from the textbook story. His Pilgrim Fathers are as inept a crew of pious pioneers...