The Book Prize Index

The Life and Times of Cotton Mather

Kenneth Silverman

Examines the life of Cotton Mather, a Puritan minister and supporter of the Salem witch trials and executions, discussing how his beliefs governed his behavior, and considering how he was influenced by the times in which he lived.

BiographyBiography · high confidenceBiography81 signalsLlm Classifier: Biography -> BiographyOpen Library: Biography -> BiographyOpen Library: Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728 -> BiographyBusiness Biography

Award History

2 wins · 2 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Bancroft PrizeMajor1985WinnerOfficial source
Pulitzer Prize in Biography or AutobiographyMajor1985WinnerSecondary source
View all award history (2)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    • Cotton Mather92%

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    30 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 78%.