Dawn's Early Light

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Elswyth Thane is best known for her Williamsburg series, seven novels published between 1943 and 1957 that follow several generations of two families from the American Revolution to World War II. Dawns Early Light is the first novel in the series.
In it, Colonial Williamsburg comes alive. Thane centers her novel around four major characters: the Aristrocratic St. John Sprague, who becomes George Washingtons aide; Regina Greensleeves, a Virginia beauty spoiled by a season in London; Julian Day, a young schoolmaster who arrives from England on the eve of the war and initially thinks of himself as a Tory; and Tibby Mawes, one of his less fortunate pupils, saddled with an alcoholic father and an indigent mother.
But we also see Washington, Jefferson, Lafayette, Greene, Patrick Henry, Francis Marion, and the rest of that brilliant galaxy playing their roles not as historical figures but as men. We see de Kalbs gallant death under a cavalry charge at Camden. We penetrate to the swamp-encircled camp which was Marions stronghold on the Peedee. We watch the cat-and-mouse game between Cornwallis and Lafayette, which ended in Cornwalliss unlucky stand at Yorktown.
Dawns Early Light is the human story behind our first war for liberty, and of the men and women loving and laughing through it to the dawn of a better world.

Reviews

"A work of extraordinary historical fiction . . . a memorable testament to the price paid for our nation's freedom." Leila Meacham, from her foreword

Author Bio

Elswyth Thane (1900-1984) was the author of over thirty books of fiction and nonfiction.Leila Meacham is the bestselling author of Roses, Tumbleweeds, Somerset, and Titans, among others.