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But One Life: The Story of Nathan Hale Kindle Edition

4.3 out of 5 stars 76 ratings

"If I had ten thousand lives, I would lay them all down."

In the early 1770’s, Nathan Hale is a young philosophy student at Yale. There, he, his brother, and their friend, Ben Tallmadge, are busying themselves with intellectual debate and occasional mischief.

Only too soon, their patriotic ideals of revolution and liberty would be put to the test. Forced to choose between love and duty, young Nathan has to face the harsh personal cost of deeply held beliefs as he leaves to become Washington’s spy.

In this powerful novel of friendship and sacrifice, Samantha Wilcoxson paints a vivid portrait of a young man’s principled passion and dedication to his ideals, turning the legend into flesh and blood.

This is the touching and thought-provoking story of how an ordinary boy grew into an extraordinary man – an American hero.


From the Publisher

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0B21PGDHM
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 6, 2022
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3.9 MB
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 278 pages
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Best Sellers Rank: #915,935 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars 76 ratings

About the author

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Samantha Wilcoxson
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Samantha Wilcoxson is an author of emotive biographical fiction and nonfiction featuring history's unsung heroes. She loves sharing trips to historic places with her family and spending time by the lake with a glass of wine. Her most recent work is a biography of James Alexander Hamilton published by Pen & Sword History. Samantha is currently writing a Wars of the Roses trilogy for Sapere Books.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
76 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find this book to be an excellent read with well-written content. They appreciate the author's honesty in presenting the story.

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5 customers mention "Enjoyment"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book to be an excellent and perfectly enjoyable read.

"What a great book! It was difficult to put down. You feel as if you are part of the American Revolution and a part of Nathan’s life!..." Read more

"...Thank you, dear Samantha, for this fantastic book, I enjoyed every single page, every single moment...." Read more

"...The pacing occasionally lags a bit, but overall a very enjoyable read." Read more

"...The ending felt rushed, but that's my only complaint. Recommended reading." Read more

5 customers mention "Writing style"5 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the writing style of the book.

"...But oh, what a waste. The book is written without unnecessary flourishes, without jingoism and with clear eyes...." Read more

"...I would highly recommend this book! Very well written!" Read more

"...So I was glad to find this novel about his life. The writing style was simple and candid...much, I imagine, as Nathan was himself...." Read more

"A well written book for sure. I enjoyed getting to know his story a bit more with some historical fiction too...." Read more

3 customers mention "Honesty"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's honesty.

"...We see an idealistic, honest young man off to Yale with his brother and away from home for the first time...." Read more

"...The narrative has a bright, crystal quality, but also an honesty that is unusual in books about heroes...." Read more

"...The writing style was simple and candid...much, I imagine, as Nathan was himself...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2022
    It's very rare to find a novel book about Nathan Hale, and rarer to find a book about Nathan Hale and Benjamin Tallmadge, which is sad, they deserved more! Thank you, dear Samantha, for this fantastic book, I enjoyed every single page, every single moment.

    For the first time, I was afraid to start it, because I had a very bad experience with historical novels, especially about Hale, but you broke that curse from the first page. I'm not a reader type, so when I say this book immersed me, that praises the writer.

    Thank you for letting us be a part of their friendship and their life through your book.
    I highly recommend this book for history and especially for Hale lovers!

    BRAVO! And thanks again!

    - Zowie
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2023
    Nathan Hale was only a shadowy figure to me until I read this novel. We see an idealistic, honest young man off to Yale with his brother and away from home for the first time. He’s a fast learner with a pretty good grip of human nature. Everyone is taken with war fever, which only escalates as the situation in Boston heats up. After graduation, brother Enoch prepares for the ministry, while Nathan begins his career as a school teacher. His daily routine reads as a pretty mundane existence until he finally feels obliged to sign up and fight for his country:

    “We have always governed ourselves. We always mean to. They don’t mean that we should.”
    I needed no further convincing, but I stood up straighter and agreed, “The British shall not rule us as second-class citizens.”
    He grasped me by the shoulder. “Not when we have honorable men willing to fight for liberty.”
    I was not ready to proclaim yet, as Patrick Henry had, ‘Give me liberty or give me death,’ but I had taken a step closer.

    Prophetic words, indeed. Forced to choose between the woman he loved and his country, he chose the latter, although the reality of fighting in the militia was discouraging and wretched. He finally saw the opportunity to make a difference and volunteered for an assignment he was ill suited for. This is a sad story about a brave man who followed his principles all the way until the end.
  • Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2024
    I think this book would have read differently if I had been taught at school – as perhaps American children are – about Nathan Hale, hero of the American War of Independence, martyred by his dedication to the independence of his emerging nation. (Oh how nations love their dead heroes!)

    I read it “blind”. Much of the book is a lovely narrative of a quiet relatively modest life of a younger son from a prosperous 18th century farming family in Connecticut. It's a loving family, warm and busy. At 14 he goes to Yale College where a growing interest in the politics of the time is but one part of his student experience. He graduates, becomes a teacher, falls in love...

    And only then do we move to the darker shadows of the story. Inspired by the political fervour of an older lad whom he idolised at college, he signs up as a patriot in the war of independence. And then we are in the territory of all wars.

    The story as it then unfolded appalled me. Here he was, such a young man, so inexperienced in life, with zero training and almost zero guidance, persuaded to volunteer for the dangerous and disparaged role of “spy”. The author does not press the point, but equally she leaves it quite clear that the objective of his mission was unclear from the start, his means of achieving it an almost complete blank, and his preparation for it non-existent. In taking on this role, his idealism is powerful but his naivety is greater

    Before he achieves anything of any value, he is detected, captured and executed. By all accounts he faced his death bravely and died with dignity. But oh, what a waste.

    The book is written without unnecessary flourishes, without jingoism and with clear eyes. The narrative has a bright, crystal quality, but also an honesty that is unusual in books about heroes. Its rather flat tone leaves the reader to read between the lines and supply the emotional depth. If I were American, and knew the story from my school days, perhaps I would have felt a certain pride from the start and added a hurrah even if I allowed myself the sentimentality of a tear. As it was, I was left thinking bleakly of the tragedy of all wars. So much waste of so many lives. It doesn’t matter to the generals that each of their men has but one life to lay down. They have thousands of lives at their disposal and without much thought might lay down every one. (Except, on the whole, their own.)
  • Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2023
    Wilcoxson accurately describes the story of Nathan Hale, American patriot. Hales’s human side and weaknesses are on full display along with his strengths. The pacing occasionally lags a bit, but overall a very enjoyable read.
  • Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2023
    I've always had a soft spot for historical characters who meet tragic ends and die in dramatic fashions. Nathan Hale definitely fits into this category, so I am glad that an author took the time to offer a glimpse into his brief life and developing character of this idealistic young man in the years leading up to his embrace of the revolutionary cause and his death in its service. I appreciated the inclusion of his Christian faith as an integral part of his identity, which ties in perfectly with his finally request, spitefully denied him, to have a Bible. The way the author had Hale ponder his own impending death, which he clearly sees as the separation of the soul from the body, was moving, particularly his hope of being reunited with his mother. I must say I was surprised by the chapter featuring my history crush, the sequence-studded Major John Andre, who will forever gain loves of love and sparkles from the artistic community due to his arts, crafts, poetry, and theme parties that basically turned into the first RenFaire events in Philly, jousts and all. Nathan's college bro Ben morbidly unimpressed, however, and cultivated the rather strong urge to punch him in the face and lock him in a cellar for his trouble. Unfortunately, we did not get the chance to touch upon his own religious epiphany upon the eve of his demise which tapped into his own deeply Christian upbringing from which he had, at times, strayed. But you know, can't steal the show each time, even if he's just the type to manage it. *Casts sparkles upon the waters in his memory*

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