And what stories they were!
—A young girl leaves her comfortable home, to cross the little-known ocean amid storms and pirates to a frozen wilderness and a man about which she knows nothing.
—A boy of fifteen who leaves his home forever to travel the wilderness to beyond where no white man has gone.
—That same boy as an old man who takes his son from their frontier city on the greatest adventure in American history to discover the long elusive passage to the sea only to return two years later to find their city in ashes.
—The pregnant mother of seven suddenly widowed at the age of 27 by the great plague and her struggle to survive until her mother brings a handsome young man asking her to hide fugitive slaves in her barn.
—A young farmer sent by his nation to fight a war in Europe he does not understand where he encounters a tragic love and horrors of war that send him home a changed and tormented soul.
These and many, many others provided the basics; all they needed was a little speculation and some imagination from the author.
—A young girl leaves her comfortable home, to cross the little-known ocean amid storms and pirates to a frozen wilderness and a man about which she knows nothing.
—A boy of fifteen who leaves his home forever to travel the wilderness to beyond where no white man has gone.
—That same boy as an old man who takes his son from their frontier city on the greatest adventure in American history to discover the long elusive passage to the sea only to return two years later to find their city in ashes.
—The pregnant mother of seven suddenly widowed at the age of 27 by the great plague and her struggle to survive until her mother brings a handsome young man asking her to hide fugitive slaves in her barn.
—A young farmer sent by his nation to fight a war in Europe he does not understand where he encounters a tragic love and horrors of war that send him home a changed and tormented soul.
These and many, many others provided the basics; all they needed was a little speculation and some imagination from the author.