John Putnam Demos is an American

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

. He has written two books that discuss witch hunts and has discovered that one of his ancestors was John Putnam Senior, a member of the Putnam family that was prominent in the

Salem witch trials The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, 19 of whom w ...

. Demos was awarded the prestigious

Bancroft Prize The Bancroft Prize is awarded each year by the trustees of Columbia University for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas. It was established in 1948, with a bequest from Frederic Bancroft, in his memory and that of his brother, ...

for his book ''Entertaining Satan''. He was awarded the 1995

Francis Parkman Prize The Francis Parkman Prize, named after Francis Parkman, is awarded by the Society of American Historians for the best book in American history each year. Its purpose is to promote literary distinction in historical writing. The Society of American ...

for his book ''The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story From Early America''. He retired in December 2008 as the Samuel Knight Professor of History at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. Demos lives in

Tyringham, Massachusetts Tyringham is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 427 at the 2020 census. History Founded as Housatonic Township Number 1, the land which becam ...

. He graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Works

''Entertaining Satan - Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England''
Oxford University Press, London, 1982 * ''A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony'' * ''The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America'' (Winner of the Ray Allen Billington Award) * ''The Enemy Within: 2,000 Years of Witch-Hunting in the Western World'' * Editor, ''Remarkable Providences''
''Past, Present, and Personal: The Family and the Life Course in American History''
* ''The Heathen School: A Story of Hope and Betrayal in the Age of the Early Republic''

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* 21st-century American historians American male non-fiction writers American people of Greek descent History of the Thirteen Colonies Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Yale University faculty People from Tyringham, Massachusetts Harvard University alumni Historians from Massachusetts Bancroft Prize winners 21st-century American male writers {{US-historian-stub

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