Dawn's Early Light
Elswyth Thane
Hardcover
(Duell, Sloan and Pearce, March 15, 1958)
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.