Buy on Amazon
View on Biblioguides
True stories about people who have done great things have always inspired me, including great scientists, the founding fathers of America, great authors and artists, and courageous missionaries. That God gives such gifts, opportunities, courage, determination, and wisdom to human beings always seems amazing to me. Archer Wallace (1884-1958) was a minister and author who specialized in assembling books focused on the accomplishments of people, mainly but not entirely men, who had made a difference in the world. He often wrote of men who had to overcome handicaps of birth, illness, poverty, or lack of education in order to do what they did. One of his books in this vein was Overcoming Handicaps, in which one chapter deals with the life of Charles Steinmetz, the famous electrical engineer (see the two books on Steinmetz in the Plumfield library that I have reviewed). Archer Wallace was born in England but then emigrated to Canada to study and preach and write.
This current review is of his book, Deeds of Daring, published in 1934, which is a collection of accounts of pioneer missionaries who struggled against dangerous circumstances in order to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to areas that had been previously unreached by the Gospel. The people in the book are a mix of famous men, such as David Brainerd, David Livingston, Wilfred Grenfell, and Robert Moffat, as well as lesser-known but still amazing men like Herbert Girling, James Hannington, and John Geddie. The stories are clearly and simply told, probably at a middle school level, but could be appreciated by older students and adults. The book clearly shows how the power and love of God, working through the courage and dedication of individuals, can change cultures and make incredible changes in people’s lives. The adventures, both physical and spiritual, described in this book make it hard to put down. I hope that the short accounts in this book will lead the reader to find other, more detailed books, about these brave missionaries.
I hope you can find other books by Archer Wallace, including: Poor Men Who Made Us Rich, Adventures in the Air, Mothers of Famous Men, Heroes of Peace, Blazing New Trails, Stories of Grit, and many more. Anyone of Wallace’s books is worth reading.