The Man Who Could Be King: A Novel

When young Josiah Penn Stockbridge accepts the position as aide-de-camp to George Washington at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, he thinks only of the glory and romance of battle. He is unprepared for the reality of America’s bloody fight for independence. The Continental Army is starving, underpaid, and dangerously close to mutiny, and Washington fights not just to defeat the British but to maintain order and morale among his own men.

As anonymous letters by officers calling for revolt circulate through camp in Newburgh, New York, Washington must make a choice: preserve the young republic by keeping civilian control of the military, or reshape the new government by standing in solidarity with his troops and assuming greater power for himself.

During one fateful week in American history, Josiah will watch a conflicted general become a legend and will discover for himself that the greatest struggles of war are those within the hearts and minds of fallible men.

John Ripin Miller has devoted much of his professional life to public service. After serving in the US Army and graduating from Bucknell University and Yale Law School, he became active in both municipal and state governments, holding seats as a Seattle city councilman, a member of the US House of Representatives, and ambassador-at-large for the US State Department, where he led the fight against modern-day slavery around the world.

Miller’s political experiences helped fuel a fascination with the life of George Washington and how the perception of his legacy changed throughout the decades. This inspired years of research and an exhaustive study into the Newburgh Conspiracy of the Revolutionary War, which Miller later turned into the comprehensive historical novel The Man Who Could Be King.

Interspersed with his political career, Miller taught English at Northwest Yeshiva High School on Mercer Island, Washington, taught history of slavery at Yale University, served as a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute, and coached Little League Baseball in Seattle. The Man Who Could Be King is his first novel.