Ever After. 1945

New York: Hawthorne Books, Inc., (1945). Later reprint. Octavo, textured red boards (hardcover), gilt lettering, uncut, 334 pp. Near Fine in a Very Good dust jacket with edgewear. From dust jacket: The historical novels of Elswyth Thane have an individuality and a charm which bring her a wider and more devoted audience with each successive book. Perhaps one of the reasons is that her characters lead lives of their own, so that despite the scrupulous authenticity of their background, they move through history as real and engaging as if they were alive today. Ever After is the story of Bracken Murray, Special Correspondent of the New York Star, and of his cub-reporter cousin, Fitz Sprague. Bracken’s eccentric Viennese wife leaves him and disappears into the shadier backwaters of the Riviera shortly before he goes to London to cover the Jubilee Summer of 1897. There he falls in love with a young English girl. In the meanwhile in New York, Fitz rescues a music-hall singer from a gambling gang -- and she falls in love with him. The war with Spain takes both boys to Cuba, Bracken as a Correspondent, Fitz in charge of the Star’s dispatch boat. And as doubly rewarding prizes of Miss Thane’s careful historical research, the fantastic conditions under which the campaign was fought -- the amateur invasion at Daiquiri, the terrible advance of the Rough Riders up Keetle Hill before San Juan -- are revealed in striking contrast to recent events abroad. Ever After carries one generation further the evolution of a War Correspondent -- from Julian Day in Danw’s Early Light and Cabot Murray of Yankee Stranger to Bracken Murray of the Richard Harding Davis era. Against the rich and varied backgrounds of New York, Williamsburg, London and Cuba, Miss Thane, with her sure sense of period and character, weaves two strong love stories through a pattern full of emotion, humor, and suspense.