the need to be close to beaver fur

[Doug Millison]

http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/pynchon.html
"William Pynchon and his family were among those willing to face the
uncertainties of the wilderness in exchange for open space and closer
proximity to a source of beaver fur. [...] He positioned himself as the
northernmost trader on the Connecticut River and erected a warehouse to
store goods awaiting transshipment. In July, 1636, 11 Native Americans in
the village of Agawam agreed to sell land on both sides of the river to Mr.
Pynchon and his group of planters in exchange for 18 fathoms of wampum (a
fathom = 6 feet), 18 coats, 18 hatchets, and 18 knives. Each of the 8
original planters received a 10 acre house lot on the east side of the river
plus a 3 acre planting lot on the Agawam (west) side of the river. In order
to reach his planting land, each man had to cross the 300 yards wide river
by canoe. (2)  William Pynchon quickly learned the local Native American
dialect, served as intermediary between the colonials and the Amerindians,
and became the dominant trader of the area. He supplied the Native Americans
with such items as wool-trading cloth in blue, red and white, ready-made
coats, knives, hatchets, tin looking glasses, tobacco boxes, scissors, brass
kettles, mackerel hooks, needles, and pins in exchange for furs. At the same
time he developed a trade with the settlers, providing them with various
kinds of cloth, thread, spoons, salt and other scarce foodstuffs. Life on
the Connecticut River was proving to be very profitable indeed. [...] In
1650, he wrote The Meritorious Price of our Redemption in which he "...
condemned especially the doctrine that Christ suffered the wrath of God and
the torments of hell to pay man's debt to his Creator." (4) The
Massachusetts General Council members read the book and were aghast - they
considered the book heretical and ordered it burned immediately on the
Market Place at Boston. "

...this web page reproduces an illustration of the book-burning.

...interesting how Pynchon works the beaver in, from V. to M&D, plus other
details of his ancestor's biography.  For DeMille young fur henchmen....

According to a review in the NYRB (a review which is not very favorable wtr
the book in question), James Carrol's new book on Catholicism and
anti-Semitism, takes a position with regard to the Cross and Jesus'
crucifixion not unlike William Pynchon's (as it is described in this web
page, at least) -- a rejection of the notion that God demanded a human
sacrifice (Jesus) as payment for sin and to accomplish atonement.