John Smith’s Writings

Smith’s collected works have appeared in two editions: Travels and Works of Captain John Smith, edited by Edward Arber, first published in 1884, paperback in 2015; The Complete Works of Captain John Smith, edited by Philip L. Barbour, published in 1980, paperback in 2011. Short titles with dates of first publication and descriptions are listed as follows: 

1.    A True Relation (1608) 

“Of such occurrences and accidents of note as hath hapned in Virginia” 1606-08.

2.    A Map of Virginia (1612) 

“A description of the country, the commodities, people, government and religion.” Published under one cover with (3) below.

3.   The Proceedings of the English Colony (1612) 

A history of the Jamestown colony. Collaborative with (2) above.

4. A Description of New England (1616) 

“Observations and discoveries … with proof of the present benefit this country affords.” 

5. Letter to Sir Francis Bacon (1618) 

Need for & justification of New England colonization. 

6. New Englands Trials (1620, 1622) 

Successive expansions of material in (5). 

7.    The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles (1624) 

Histories of the Raleigh & Jamestown colonies, Bermuda, & Plymouth Plantation, in six books. Collaborative. 

8.    An Accidence (1626)

Notes & lists of nautical usage & terms. 

9.     A Sea Grammar (1627) 

Expansion of (8) as a dictionary. 

10.   The True Travels (1630) 

Personal memoir, “adventures and observations of CJS” & appended material. 

11. Advertisements (1631)

A summary of views & advice “for the Unexperienced Planters.”

A contemporary source of Smith’s writing is found in the compendia of accounts of English travel, adventure & colonization, edited by Samuel Purchas, entitled Purchas’ Pilgrims, or Purchas’ Pilgrimage, often with interesting additions and alterations. Fellow colonist William Strachey’s Historie of Travell contains much material found in Smith’s works (2) and (3) so as today to serve as a corroboration of Smith as a reporter.

Smith’s “Journal”

Among historians Smith’s “journal” is a practical term for his Virginia publications listed here as 1, 2, 3, and as they are re-worked in 7. His writings are entirely in his publications. We have no manuscripts in his hand.