The Kingdoms of Edward Hicks

Carolyn Weekley largely earns the reader's trust in this perceptive portrayal of the Quaker culture which produced The Peaceable Kingdoms. True, our understanding of the many controversies at the heart of the Hicksite Schism has progressed since her book was published. For instance, Weekley passes over without comment the subversive, gender-bent iconography portrayed in the myserious "Jonathan and David at the Stone Ezel." In addition, she fails to recognize Edward's place at the edge of the powerful maritime dynasty which was explored by Robert A. Davison in Isaac Hicks, New York Merchant and Quaker, 1767-1820. But otherwise the biography succeeds as a much-needed portrait of the artist in a spiritual context.