History of John Winchomb, Usually Called Jack of Newbury

About this book

This early novel, a collection of biographical tales about a nonfictional individual, a clothier, provides a rare glimpse of daily life in an industry during the early years of King Henry VIII's reign. The author's ingenuous style, occasionally addressing the reader directly in the second person, creates the atmosphere of an informal exchange of tales around a cracker barrel. Many of the tales have explicit morals, for Jack is a businessman with a heart of gold, the very opposite of the unreformed Ebenezer Scrooge. He proves that generosity rather than parsimony is the key to success. An imaginative innovator, he unites the clothiers of England during a national emergency to appeal to the king for redress—and for his pains faces bureaucratic opposition similar to that which, centuries later, was to afflict union leaders. However, as true history most of the book must be taken with a grain or salt, as the amusing preface points out. - Summary by Thomas A. Copeland