Other editions of book Dawn's Early Light

Colonial Williamsburg lives again in this rich story which is Elswyth Thane's first novel of American history in her bestselling series. Against a background of Williamsburg's quiet streets, the pomp and glitter of the Palace during the last days of British rule, and the excitement and triumph which swirled through the Raleigh Tavern, we see the people of Williamsburg whom history has forgotten: aristocratic St. John Sprague, who became George Washington's aide; Regina Greensleeves, the spoilt Virginia Beauty; Julian Day, the young schoolmaster, just arrived from England; and finally, Tibby, the most appealing, irresistible creature Miss Thane has ever written about. Washington, Jefferson, Lafayette, Greene, Francis Marion, and the rest of that brilliant galaxy are portrayed not as historical figures but as men. We see de Kalb's gallant death under a cavalry charge at Camden, the swamp-encircled camp which was Marion's fastness on the Peedee, and the cat-and-mouse game between Cornwallis and Lafayette, which ended in Cornwallis's unlucky stand at Yorktown. "Dawn's Early Light" is the human story behind America's first war for liberty, and of men and women loving and laughing through war to the dawn of a better world.

Julian Day, the uncomfortable Tory newcomer in a hotbed of rebels; Tabitha Mawes, the child of disgrace and poverty who adores the new young schoolmaster with a very unchildlike love; St. John Sprague the firebrand patriot whose friendship with Julian brings him a rival in love as well as at long last a comrade in arms, and so many more -- are brought to life to the point where visiting Williamsburg one almost expects to bump into them in Francis Street. But perhaps Thane's greatest accomplishment is to have taken a host of Founding Fathers such as Washington, Lafayette, Jefferson, Francis Marion, George Wythe and others out of the category of glorified but wooden history book images and turned them into believably human presences. An excellent story, characters of poignant clarity, set into the backdrop of the American Revolution.