Category Archives: Fletcher, Inglis

Inglis Fletcher. Men of Albemarle. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1942.

Passions–political and otherwise–fly in this, the second novel in Fletcher’s Carolina Series.  Against a local backdrop of political and religious dissent and conflict with the Tuscaroras, the action in this novel reminds readers how connected the Carolina colony was to England in this period.  The novel opens in 1710 as three men contend for the governorship of the fledgling colony.  Three women pull at the heartstrings of the main character, wealthy planter Roger Mainwairing.  Mainwairing had planned to marry a young bride from England, but his attention is diverted by the mysterious exile Lady Mary, who may or may not be the illegitimate daughter of an English king.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1940-1949, 1942, Beaufort, Coast, Fletcher, Inglis, Historical, Novels in Series

Inglis Fletcher. Queen’s Gift. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1952.

This installment of Inglis Fletcher’s Carolina Series is set in Edenton, North Carolina during the late 1780s.  Political tensions run high in North Carolina after the colonies gain independence and the Federalists and Anti-federalists debate ratifying the Constitution.  Adam Rutledge and his wife Mary are highly respected political and social leaders in their community, but when Adam returns from an extended visit to Illinois with a different political perspective the couple goes through a stressful period.  Old friends (and North Carolina greats) like Samuel Johnston and Jemmy Lenoir are not pleased with Adam’s new politics. Mary has been in ill health, and the distance between Mary and Adam is compounded by Mary’s devotion to the plantation – Queen’s Gift – that has been in her family for years, while Adam has a vested interest in the success of the western territories.

With the help of new friends Sylvia Hay and Angus Moray, Mary’s health is restored. Adam’s demand for a Bill of Rights helps North Carolina ratify the Constitution and join the Union.  When a late brewing hurricane causes great damage to Queen’s Gift, Mary takes it as a sign to turn her sights to the West.

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Filed under 1950-1959, 1952, Chowan, Coast, Fletcher, Inglis, Historical, Novels in Series, Romance/Relationship

Inglis Fletcher. Raleigh’s Eden. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1940.

This is the first book in Inglis Fletcher’s series of novels about North Carolina in the 17th and 18th centuries.   This is a big book and it set the pattern for the ones to follow.  While historical events play out in the background (the Regulator Insurrection, the Edenton Tea Party, the Battle of Guilford Courthouse), the main characters struggle with their personal and political passions.  The hero, Adam Rutledge, is a well-born landowner, married to Sara, an invalid.  Mary Warden is attracted to Adam, even as she struggles to stay true to her much older husband.  Into and out of their lives come almost a hundred other characters, some actual historical figures, some fanciful creations of the author’s imagination.  When it was published, this book was compared to Gone with the Wind. Like Margaret Mitchell’s blockbuster, Raleigh’s Eden is a good read, but readers of our era will find some of the situations and the attitudes of some characters objectionable.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1940, 1940-1949, Chowan, Coast, Fletcher, Inglis, Historical, Novels in Series, Piedmont

Inglis Fletcher. Toil of the Brave. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1946

The unrest of the Regulators and the fight for American independence are of little interest to many of the residents of River Plantation in Chowan County. The beautiful Angela Ferrier busies herself with romances even as her step-father, who sits on the Governor’s Council, fears for North Carolina and his family.  Only when Angela finds herself torn between a dashing British spy and a handsome American army captain does she realize the perils of her times. Although essentially a romance, the last quarter of the book gives a good account of the fighting in North and South Carolina in the fall of 1780.

This is one of the books in Fletcher’s series of novels about North Carolina in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1940-1949, 1946, Chowan, Coast, Fletcher, Inglis, Historical, Novels in Series, Romance/Relationship

Inglis Fletcher. Lusty Wind for Carolina. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1944

The fledgling settlement at the mouth of the Cape Fear is menaced by pirates in this novel set in the early 1700s.  Blackbeard, working out of his base on Ocracoke Island, hinders the overseas trade that Huguenot refugee Robert Fontaine hopes will bring prosperity to Carolina coast.  Fontaine’s daughter’s courtship and marriage to the enterprising David Moray add a romantic element to the novel.  The action moves back and forth between Europe and points in the New World.

This is the third novel in the author’s Carolina Series.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1940-1949, 1944, Brunswick, Coast, Fletcher, Inglis, Historical, Novels in Series

Inglis Fletcher. The Wind in the Forest. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1957.

Both Royal Governor William Tryon and the Regulator insurrection are well known to students of North Carolina history.  In this novel, Inglis Fletcher retells these familiar stories through the actions of Hillary Caswell.  Caswell is a Marylander by birth, new to North Carolina, but wealthy and well connected (his cousin Richard is the speaker of the North Carolina Assembly).  As the novel opens, Caswell is making plans to go to New Bern where he will join Governor Tryon’s administration.  Although the complaints of his kinsmen and the allure of Cecelia Chapman should have kept him in Tyrrell County, Caswell goes on to New Bern and from there into the fray of late colonial unrest and the fateful Battle of Alamance.  As with most of Fletcher’s novels, historical figures like Tryon, Harmon Husband, and Edmund Fanning are integral to the story.

This is the ninth novel in Fletcher’s Carolina Series.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1950-1959, 1957, Coast, Fletcher, Inglis, Historical, Novels in Series, Piedmont

Inglis Fletcher. The Carolina Series.

This is the series that gave many people, including a lot of native North Carolinians, their ideas about the early history of North Carolina.  Ms. Fletcher was a diligent researcher whose novels include many factual details, even as she spun romantic tales of exploration, colonization, and the struggle for independence from England.  The period of exploration and early colonization are covered in Roanoke Hundred, Bennett’s Welcome, and Rogue’s Harbor.  The early eighteenth century is the setting for Men of Albemarle, Lusty Wind for Carolina, and Cormorant’s Brood.  The run-up to the American Revolution is treated in Raleigh’s Eden, The Wind in the Forest, and The Scotswoman, while the war itself is the background for Toil of the Brave and Wicked Lady. Queen’s Gift is set in the period immediately after the colonies have gained their independence.  Although more recent historical novels display a less romanticized view of the past, Ms. Fletcher’s novels remain a good choice for readers seeking an entertaining and educational presentation of the early eras of our state’s history.

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Filed under Coast, Fletcher, Inglis, Historical, Novels in Series, Series

Inglis Fletcher. Roanoke Hundred. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1948.

Sir Richard Grenville is the hero of this novel about the first attempted settlement of Roanoke Island (1585-1586), while Governor Ralph Lane is portrayed as a weak leader.  Much of the action takes place in England before the expedition sails and after the explorers return.  The reader gets a good sense of Elizabethan politics and the excitement that exploration held for well-born adventurers.  Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, John White, Richard Hakluyt, and Thomas Hariot all have roles in the novel.   The lowly-born Colin provides additional human interest, as he becomes a trusted aide to Grenville and a suitor to one of Grenville’s wards.

This is the fifth novel in Fletcher’s Carolina Series.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1940-1949, 1948, Coast, Dare, Fletcher, Inglis, Historical, Novels in Series