Category Archives: 1952

1952

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.

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

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

Burgess Leonard. Phantom of the Foul-Lines. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1952.

A new college basketball season is just around the corner, so it’s an appropriate time to add this novel to your reading list.

Mickey Barton was the captain of his high school basketball team–a team that won the state championship and a national invitational tournament.  That should make him a hot prospect for the premier basketball colleges in his state.  But Mickey has a problem–he is only 5′ 6″.  The big time schools rebuff him, and his best friend and teammate 6′ 10″ Hub Duncan trades his friendship with Mickey for a chance to play for an elite coach.  Mickey, whose dad is dead, needs a scholarship to attend college.  Luckily, his high school coach becomes the basketball coach at Greyling Tech, the perennial cellar dweller in the conference.  Mickey joins Coach Royce there.  Despite the ragtag nature of the team and bad behavior by the coach’s son, they go on to glory.

Mickey’s college, Grayling Tech, is thought to be Wake Forest, but I could not identify any of the schools in the conference.

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

Comments Off on Burgess Leonard. Phantom of the Foul-Lines. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1952.

Filed under 1950-1959, 1952, Children & Young Adults, Leonard, Burgess

Bruce Lancaster. Phantom Fortress. Garden City, NY: Permabooks, 1952.

In this novel, set as the Revolutionary War is drawing to a close, follows Ross Pembroke, a patriot who has just escaped from the British in Charleston.  Pembroke began his service in the North, but the war has taken him south and for most of the novel he shuttles between the bases of patriot officers in North and South Carolina. He also finds time to pursue and protect the tempestuous Dorande van Kortenaer, a beautiful refugee from the island of St. Eusebius.  Historical figures such as Nathanael Greene and Francis Marion figure in the narrative, but this novel is very much in the tradition of the historical romance.

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

Comments Off on Bruce Lancaster. Phantom Fortress. Garden City, NY: Permabooks, 1952.

Filed under 1950-1959, 1952, Coast, Historical, Lancaster, Bruce, Romance/Relationship