Yankee Stranger

Overview

Williamsburg, Virginia, is once more the scene in this second book of Thane's series, but the time is now the 1860s. Some of the characters are the descendants of those in the first novel, Dawn's Early Light, and Grandmother Day, who was 16 when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, is now 95. Once, she can remember, it was Massachusetts that was threatening to secede instead of South Carolina. And when she was a girl they never seemed to think much about Yankees, one way or the other. But when a Yankee comes to Williamsburg in the tense autumn of 1860 and red-haired Eden Day falls heels over head in love with him, her great grandmother takes the long view—besides, she likes him herself. The story moves from Williamsburg to Richmond to Washington and back again during the dreadful years between Fort Sumter and Appomattox. In addition to the fictitious characters, Jeb Stuart and General Lee, Pickett, Magruder, and Stonewall Jackson are all seen through the eyes of the men who followed them into battle. Like Dawn's Early Light, Yankee Stranger is full of action and romance, but most importantly, it presents a vivid re-creation of a vanished world. 

Reviews

"Delightfully drawn picture of civilian life behind the front." —Kirkus Reviews"'Yankee Stranger' is good company for an autumn evening by the log fire." —Boston Globe 

"A student of the Civil War would be hard pressed to find a history text offering as authentic an account of the period as Elswyth Thane's Yankee Stranger, not to mention one so readable and enjoyable." —Leila Meacham, from her foreword 

"A deftly crafted combination of action and romance played in a vividly recreated world that is a now long vanished yesteryear, 'Yankee Stranger' is a consistently compelling read that is unfailingly entertaining from beginning to end."—Midwest Book Review

Author Biography

Elswyth Thane (1900–1984) was the author of over 30 books of fiction and nonfiction. Her husband, William Beebe, was a famous naturalist, writer, and explorer. Leila Meacham is the bestselling author of Roses, Tumbleweeds, Somerset, and Titans, among others.