The Ordways

The Ordways by William Humphrey. Published by Alfred A Knopf, New York, NY, 1964. 1st Edition. Hardbound, no DJ. Size 8vo (up to 9-1/2'' tall). Condition: Nr Fine. Orig owners name in ink inside front cover. 362 Pgs. LCCN 64-19089. ''To grow up a boy in Clarksville in my time'', recalls the narrator of this book, ''was to be a double dreamer''. For Clarksville, Texas, was where the Old South met the frontier West and family history retold at the annual graveyard working day provided the stuff to fuel a young imagination. Here, is the story of Thomas Ordway, the narrator's great-grandfather, who was blinded at Shiloh and moved his family from Tennessee to Texas. It is also the saga of his grandfather, Sam Ordway, who scoured the vast land of Texas in futile search of his three-year-old son, stolen by his neighbor in 1898. ''Before I could become myself'', the narrator states, ''I would first have to live through the lives of those who had produced me''. And so he does, in this affecting, whimsical, superbly written novel. Description text copyright 2007 BooksForComfort. Item ID 13228.