Category Archives: 1940

1940

Marian Sims. The City on the Hill. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1940.

Lawyer Steve Chandler seems to be the only honest man in the fictional North Carolina city of Medbury. Chandler takes on social injustice, a corrupt police force, organized crime, bigotry, and public apathy in the courtroom, at his church, in his social circles, and on the streets. For the most part, it’s a losing battle in a novel that paints an unflattering portrait of a southern city (thought to be Charlotte) in the early twentieth century.

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

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Filed under 1940, 1940-1949, Mecklenburg, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Piedmont, Sims, Marian

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