author
James E. (James Everett) Seaver
1787–1827
Best remembered for recording Mary Jemison’s remarkable life story, this early American physician-writer helped preserve one of the most widely read captivity narratives of the 19th century. His work stands at the meeting point of frontier history, oral testimony, and literary storytelling.
1 Audiobook
A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison
by James E. (James Everett) Seaver
About the author
Born in 1787 and dead by 1827, he is chiefly known as the author of A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison, first published in 1824. Library and catalog records consistently identify him as James E. Seaver, or James Everett Seaver, and connect him with the original telling of Jemison’s story.
Seaver was a doctor as well as a writer. Later editions and library descriptions of Mary Jemison describe the book as the life of Jemison as told to an upstate New York physician in 1824, and the preface to the early edition is dated from Pembroke in March 1824, placing him in western New York during the work’s creation.
Although not much else about his life is easy to confirm from standard reference sources, his reputation rests securely on this single enduring book. Through it, he preserved a firsthand-style account that remained in print for generations and continues to interest readers of early American history, Native American history, and captivity narratives.