North and South
New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982. Second printing [stated]. Hardcover. [10], 740, [2] pages. John William Jakes (born March 31, 1932) is an American writer, best known for American historical and speculative fiction. His Civil War trilogy, North and South, has sold millions of copies worldwide. He is also the author of The Kent Family Chronicles. He has used the pen name Jay Scotland. Thrilling Wonder Stories, edited by Sam Merwin, published two 1949–1950 letters from Jakes and two of his stories were published in pulp magazines edited by Howard Browne late in 1950, The Dreaming Trees (Fantastic Adventures, November) and "Your Number is Up!" (Amazing Stories, December). Jakes sold his first short story in 1950. ISFDB catalogs 28 more speculative fiction stories published 1951 to 1953. Jakes published dozens of stories and several novels during the twenty years following completion of college, many of them fantasy fiction, science fiction and westerns and other historical fiction. He was a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of heroic fantasy authors founded in the 1960s and led by Lin Carter. Jakes gained widespread popularity with the publication of his Kent Family Chronicles, which became a best-selling American Bicentennial Series of books in the mid to late 1970s. He has since published several more popular works of historical fiction, most dealing with American history, including the North and South trilogy about the U.S. Civil War, which was adapted as an ABC-TV miniseries. In September 2013, Jakes was named a Florida Literary Legend at the Florida Heritage Book Festival. A compelling, panoramic novel of two wealthy families during twenty turbulent, troubled years that culminate in the shattering Civil War. North and South introduces the rice-growing Mains of South Carolina and the ironworking Hazards of Pennsylvania, whose respective scions Orry and George meet and become friends at West Point. Over the next two decades (1842–1861) the men fight in the Mexican–American War, suffer various family conflicts and witness the increasing discord between the North and South regions of the United States. Orry Main from South Carolina and George Hazard from Pennsylvania meet on their way to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1842. They soon become close friends, frequently confronting their regional differences within the frame of their friendship. During their time at the academy, Orry and George are tormented by a sadistic Ohioan cadet named Elkanah Bent, but they are not able to effect Bent's final expulsion from the Academy, as he returns. The companions graduate and become officers in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War. On the way to Mexico, George courts a young Irish woman in Texas named Constance. George and Orry end up in the Battle of Churubusco in 1847, where Bent orders them to carry out a risky mission. Orry's arm is badly wounded and eventually amputated. He is sent home, but George stays. George is later released from the Army due to his father's death, and he and Constance return to Pennsylvania and marry. George and Orry eventually meet up again and resume their friendship, as tensions increase between the North and South. Soon, Orry's younger sister Brett falls in love with George's younger brother William "Billy". Later, Billy Hazard is a classmate of Orry's cousin Charles Main at West Point. They graduate and Billy is assigned to the United States Corps of Engineers, Charles to the cavalry. In 1859, as Orry is planning a trip to Pennsylvania, Brett begs him to take her with him so they can continue to St. Louis, Missouri, where Billy is stationed with the Engineers. On the train back to South Carolina, the train is stopped by raiders under the command of the radical Abolitionist John Brown, in the town of Harpers Ferry, then part of the state of Virginia. Brett and Orry are sent on their way to South Carolina unharmed. One year after the Mains and Hazards rendezvous in Pennsylvania, Billy is stationed only a few miles away from the Mains' plantation, in Major Robert Anderson's garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. Billy is given leave and marries Brett the next day. A few nights later, Confederate forces under the command of Brigadier General Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard open fire on Fort Sumter, setting off the American Civil War. Orry and George say their final goodbye before the war, hoping for the best for each other. North and South debuted at No. 12 on The New York Times Best Seller list, and reached No. 1 within four weeks on February 28, 1982. It was later ranked the No. 8 hardcover fiction bestseller of 1982 by Publishers Weekly. Condition: Very good / No dust jacket present.
Keywords: Civil War, West Point, Mexican-American War, Elkanah Bent, Churubusco, Orry Main, George Hazard, John Brown, Plantation, Fort Sumter, Pierre Beauregard, Charles Main, Family, Relationships, Amputation, Corps of Engineers, Cavalry, Ironworking
ISBN: 0151669988
[Book #85028]
Price: $32.50