The Story of William Morgan

This spring Cornerstone Publishers will release my next book, Morgan: The Scandal That Shook Freemasonry. It is a book I thought would never see print. Masonic publishers did not want to touch it, afraid to publish something that suggested Freemasons might be guilty of murder, and non-Masonic publishers were reluctant to touch it for fear of alienating the Freemasons who might buy their books.

But Morgan is not some conspiracy theorist’s fantasy or the ravings of an anti-masonic madman; it is, as the late Kent L. Walgren once said, “the great unwritten chapter of American history.” I’d add to that by saying that the story of William Morgan is one of the great unsolved mysteries of American history.

On September 11, 1826 William Morgan was arrested for petit larceny and taken from his home in Batavia, New York to answer the charge. He never saw his home or family again. What became of Morgan after he was freed from a Canandaigua jail cell in the middle of the night forms the basis of one of the great unsolved mysteries of American history, made all the more mysterious by the circumstances that preceded it. Several months before his arrest, Morgan had begun work on a book on the Freemasons, a group he had recently had a falling out with. The problem for Morgan and his book was that it sought to expose Masonic secrets, something the local members of the fraternity wished to prevent at all costs.

The book is the story of William Morgan, his associates and the book they proposed to publish. It is the story of how a handful of young, impetuous members of the Masonic fraternity took matters into their own hands to prevent its publication and how their plans took a deadly fork in the road, nearly exterminating the very organization they sought to protect.

What makes this telling of the Morgan story different is that it has no partisan axe to grind. Almost every book written on the Morgan Affair has been written with an anti-masonic or pro-masonic agenda. Morgan: The Scandal That Shook Freemasonry will walk the path left by the various materials still available: court transcripts, letters, affidavits and first hand accounts. And there are plenty of materials to draw from; the bibliography runs some nine pages. But that doesn’t mean this will be some dry academic tome. Although the book will be well cited, I’ve chosen to go with a narrative nonfiction style this time around, making the book read more like a mystery novel than a traditional nonfiction book.

The manuscript is progressing well and should be finished by mid February.

Outremer: The Saga of the Knights Templar

Bob Prodor (left) and Stephen Dafoe signing Outremer No. 1

Well, it's finally done. After nearly a year, the first issue of Outremer: The Saga of the Knights Templar is ready to ship today.

I met with artist Bob Prodor yesterday at Happy Harbor Comics in Edmonton to sign copies of the book for readers who ordered early. HH owner Jay Bardyla was a huge help in providing technical and critical advice during the production.

We are really pleased with the look of the book and will start on issue two this winter, hoping for a spring 2009 release for the second issue.

For those of you who enjoy the Templars and comics, the first issue is available at http://www.templarcomics.com/ as a stand alone book, electronic download or in a limited edition collector's set that contains a few extra goodies.

Warriors and the Bankers goes to Turkey

Just learned this past week that Arion Publishing has just acquired the Turkish rights for The Warriors and the Bankers, which I co-wrote with Alan Butler in 1998.

This is the third foreign rights project for our work, but the first time Warriors has been translated into another language. Our 1999 follow up, The Knights Templar Revealed, has been translated into Italian and Croatian.

The English edition is still available through Lewis Masonic.

Thanks Grand Lodge of Manitoba

Many thanks to the brethren of Manitoba for their invitation to be their keynote speaker Nov. 7 and 8 at their Masonic Retreat in Gimli. The weather might not have been the best, but the hospitality and friendship more than made up for it.

The weekend started with a Table Lodge on Friday evening complete with a fine meal and seven toasts and moved on to a day full of interesting speakers and discussions.

Special thanks to Brother Ron Audet for sending me some pictures from the weekend. The guy on the left who looks half asleep or half cut is me, followed by Grand Master Ted Jones and Past Grand Master Don Beattie.

Thanks again to the Grand Lodge of Manitoba for a great weekend.