[A]s I mounted the slopes of the mountains my spirits rose too at the prospect of the life before me. The woods were all aflame with color, with wine and amber and gold, and the hills wore the misty mantle of shadowy blue so dear to my youthful memory. As I left the rude taverns of a morning and jogged along the heights, I watched the vapors rise and roll away from the valleys far beneath, and saw great flocks of ducks and swans and cackling geese darkening the air in their southward flight. -from The Crossing

At the turn of the 20th century, Winston Churchill was the most popular novelist in the United States, the J.K. Rowling of his day-his second novel, Richard Carvel, sold a phenomenal two million copies, and his extraordinary fame forced the British Winston Churchill-the future prime minister whom we associate with the name today-to use his middle name to avoid confusion with his American counterpart.

This 1904 novel is considered by many to be Churchill's best, a sweeping historical romance of the settling of the Kentucky frontier during the American Revolution. Meticulously researched, it features appearances by such legendary names as George Rogers Clark, Simon Kenton, and Daniel Boone.

A century after it was written, Churchill's sensitive and poetic prose continues to bring the era and its players alive for readers today.

Also available from Cosimo Classics: Churchill's The Dwelling-Place of Light

OF INTEREST TO: readers of historical fiction, Revolutionary War buffs