Best of
Historical-Fiction

1955

The Spear: A Novel of the Crucifixion


Louis de Wohl - 1955
    For this is the full story of the world's most dramatic execution, as it affected one of its least-known participants-the man who hurled his spear into Christ on the Cross.Among his many successful historical novels, Louis de Wohl considered The Spear the magnum opus of his literary career.

The Good Shepherd


C.S. Forester - 1955
    A convoy of thirty-seven merchant ships is ploughing through icy, submarine-infested North Atlantic seas during the most critical days of World War II, when the German submarines had the upper hand and Allied shipping was suffering heavy losses. In charge is Commander George Krause, an untested veteran of the U.S. Navy. Hounded by a wolf pack of German U-boats, he faces 48 hours of desperate peril trapped on the bridge of the ship. Exhausted beyond measure, he must make countless and terrible decisions as he leads his small fighting force against the relentless U-boats.

Run Silent Run Deep


Edward L. Beach - 1955
    Set in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the tension-filled story focuses on an American submarine captain given orders to destroy Japanese shipping in the Pacific. At first his missions go well, but when he takes on an infamous Japanese destroyer, nicknamed Bungo Pete, a terrifying game of cat and mouse begins. From the training of the crew right through to the breathtaking climax, this tale is absolutely riveting, and will have fans of military writers such as Tom Clancy cheering.Edward L. Beach graduated from the U.S. Navy's submarine school just two weeks after Pearl Harbor, and fought in the Pacific for the rest of the war. Run Silent, Run Deep was his first novel and became an immediate bestseller.

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch


Jean Lee Latham - 1955
    Nathaniel Bowditch grew up in a sailor’s world—Salem in the early days, when tall-masted ships from foreign ports crowded the wharves. But Nat didn’t promise to have the makings of a sailor; he was too physically small. Nat may have been slight of build, but no one guessed that he had the persistence and determination to master sea navigation in the days when men sailed only by “log, lead, and lookout.” Nat’s long hours of study and observation, collected in his famous work, The American Practical Navigator (also known as the “Sailors’ Bible”), stunned the sailing community and made him a New England hero.

Andersonville


MacKinlay Kantor - 1955
    The 1956 Pulitzer Prize-winning story of the Andersonville Fortress and its use as a concentration camp-like prison by the South during the Civil War.

Something Of Value


Robert Ruark - 1955
    It is a powerful, gripping, and sometimes shocking novel that presents an enlightening glimpse into the lives of all sections of the population in Colonial Kenya fifty years ago.

Papa Married a Mormon


John D. Fitzgerald - 1955
    Mamma's Boarding House and Uncle Will and the Fitzgerald Curse followed soon after, but good luck finding either of them.Born in Price, Utah, in 1907 to a Scandinavian Mormon mother and an Irish Catholic father, he grew up influenced by both cultures. He left Utah behind at age eighteen, working at such varied jobs as playing in a jazz band, working in a bank, and serving as an overseas newspaper correspondent. At the time of his first break into the national literary scene, he was a purchaser for a steel company in California. Fitzgerald began writing Papa Married a Mormon, a family history about his boyhood, to fulfill a promise made to his mother on her death-bed. She implored him to tell the story of those who settled the west. Not so much a story of the Mormons, but of the people themselves – specifically Fitzgerald’s family and members of the Mormon/Gentile community in which they lived.Set in the fictional southern Utah community of Adenville, Fitzgerald creates a nostalgic picture of small town life in early 1900s. The story tells of the conflicts between the Mormons and gentiles within the community, and how leaders on both sides managed to unify the town, despite their differences and animosities. Because many parts of the book are similar in prose to Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn novels, Papa Married a Mormon fits the mold of a Victorian look at an era long gone.Reference: The Promise Is Fulfilled: Literary Aspects of John D. Fitzgerald's Novels, by Audrey M. Godfrey. Retrieved February 11, 2008 from: http://mldb.byu.edu/94/godfrey.htm

Cross of Iron


Willi Heinrich - 1955
    A resourceful and cynical commander somehow manages to coax his men through the bitter hand-to-hand fighting in forests, trenches and city streets until eventually they regain the German lines. But safety is only temporary. After the tension of waiting for the last overwhelming Russian advance the platoon is forced into futile counter-attacks and murderous house-to-house fighting until its final decimation becomes inevitable.A modern classic of war fiction both as a book and a film, this is a strikingly realistic story of action on the Eastern Front, where the grimness of combat seems to have neither pity nor end.Author Willi Heinrich (1920-2005) served in the heavily mauled 101st Jager Division, and was himself wounded five times during the war.Cross of Iron was also made into a film of the same name by Sam Peckinpah in 1977.

Papa's Wife


Thyra Ferré Björn - 1955
    This novel follows the lives of a conservative, Swedish minister, Pontus Franzon, and his pretty young wife, Maria, through their years in a parsonage in Lapland, their eight children, and their journey to a new life in America.

Village School


Miss Read - 1955
    This is the English village of Fairacre: a handful of thatch-roofed cottages, a church, the school, the promise of fair weather, friendly faces, and good cheer -- at least most of the time. Here everyone knows everyone else's business, and the villagers like each other anyway (even Miss Pringle, the irascible, gloomy cleaner of Fairacre School). With a wise heart and a discerning eye, Miss Read guides us through one crisp, glistening autumn in her village and introduces us to a cast of unforgettable characters and a world of drama, romance, and humor, all within a stone's throw of the school. By the time winter comes, you'll be nestled snugly into the warmth and wit of Fairacre and won't want to leave.

Amberwell


D.E. Stevenson - 1955
     There had been a raid in the Midlands and the station was blacked-out and in chaos. Nell ran wildly from one side of the enormous station to the other, despair clutching at her heart. How on earth was she to find an unknown woman in the milling crowds? And would she have Roger’s baby safely tucked away with her? Nell is just one of the Aryton’s in trouble as the Second World War looms. Amberwell, an estate on the west coast of Scotland, has been in the Ayrton family for several generations... descending from father to son in an unbroken line. By family tradition, each new owner was to add to the amenities of the place and in this way Amberwell grew larger and more beautiful as the years went by, endowed with gardens and terraces and orchards. The five young Ayrtons who grew up at Amberwell have now ventured out into the world. They may have been brought up by cool, distant parents, but the bonds between these children are strong. Now they must fight to hold on to what they see dear as the threat of war emerges. Will the war drastically alter their destinies? What will become of the Amberwell children, their complex relationships, and the place they call home ...? “Consistently charming” The Times 
 “D. E. Stevenson shows a warm, human understanding … in this delicately written tale of family life.” Birmingham Mail “A delightful story” Edinburgh Evening News 

D. E. Stevenson (1892–1973), Dorothy Emily Peploe (married name) was a Scottish author of more than 40 light romantic novels. Her father was the lighthouse engineer David Alan Stevenson, first cousin to the author Robert Louis Stevenson. 

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HMS Ulysses


Alistair MacLean - 1955
    Now reissued in a new cover style.The story of men who rose to heroism, and then to something greater, HMS Ulysses takes its place alongside The Caine Mutiny and The Cruel Sea as one of the classic novels of the navy at war.It is the compelling story of Convoy FR77 to Murmansk – a voyage that pushes men to the limits of human endurance, crippled by enemy attack and the bitter cold of the Arctic.

The Iron King


Maurice Druon - 1955
    He governs his realm with an iron hand, but he cannot rule his own family: his sons are weak and their wives adulterous; while his red-blooded daughter Isabella is unhappily married to an English king who prefers the company of men.A web of scandal, murder and intrigue is weaving itself around the Iron King; but his downfall will come from an unexpected quarter. Bent on the persecution of the rich and powerful Knights Templar, Philip sentences Grand Master Jacques Molay to be burned at the stake, thus drawing down upon upon himself a curse that will destroy his entire dynasty ...

The Lost Wagon


Jim Kjelgaard - 1955
    Every member of the family will enjoy this tale of wagon trains, cowboys, settlers, love, romance, and did I mention wagons?

The Tontine


Thomas B. Costain - 1955
    It begins with the Day the Battle of Waterloo was fought and ends at the closing of the 19th Century. Its cast includes Actors, Kings, Sailors, Artists, etc. It is filled with romance.

The Etruscan


Mika Waltari - 1955
    When she fell in love with another, he was forced to flee to Etruria & found a destiny beyond his wildest expectations & powers.

Song of the Voyageur


Beverly Butler - 1955
    It is a tale of growing up there and falling in love with a voyageur who travels the rivers.

The Plums Hang High


Gertrude E. Finney - 1955
    But nothing has prepared Hannah Maria, who trusts in the comforts of her brother’s home, for the crude life of a Midwest farm in 1868. Only a deep love and her proud spirit sustain her in early bitterness and despair.Jethro, with no experience on the land, wants to be a farmer. A kindly, hardworking couple take the tyros to their hearts. Some lessons are bitter, some laughable, as they become farmer folk. Their first farm turns out to be worthless and they must hire out again on shares. Tender and poignant is the tale of the dress washed out each night, of the two who ran away to see the circus and sold the family’s valuable horse. In a great blizzard Jethro goes for nurse and doctor, returns to find a baby has been born without their help. At last Jethro is famous for his Clydesdales.They have an assured position and honors come.The Plums Hang High has a sense of the drama of life itself, of generation succeeding generation.

The River Witch


Marjorie McIntyre - 1955
    Louis-St Joseph route on the Missouri River. Cordelia was in love with Josiah, but was jealous of his attention to the bawdy Red Maude who had saved Josiah's life after an attack by bandits. Out of spite Cordelia married Pierre de Vries. They had a daughter whom Cordelia adored. When the daughter died Cordelia sunk into a depression that turned to hate. Ultimately her husband taught Cordelia the true meaning of love.

The Tontine Part 1 Of 2


Thomas B. Costain - 1955
    The drama touches royalty and millionaires, actresses and sailors, planters and portrait painters. It ranges from London to the Caribbean, driven by a world in high gear, a world powered by greed. But time flies by. Three survivors wait each other out. Then two, and at last, only one. . .a winner with everything but a future.

Two of Red and Two of Blue: The Story of a Page and a Prince


Marjorie Phillips - 1955
    Historical fiction set in the Renaissance

Oklahoma Run


Alberta Wilson Constant - 1955
    For Bushrod, the new country has a challenge which the gentler Allegra can never really share; the birth of a boy there, after a hard pregnancy, ends with his death when he gets the "flux," and is the cause of one of several separations through the years as Allegra goes home to Missouri. But for Lainey, there is always the solidarity with her father and the land he has chosen. There is also the fascination for Quirt Kearney, a drifter, which makes her forget Arch - her first beau following a candy pull - and when Quirt hightails it off without her, she thinks she has no one. Bush dies, in a cyclone disaster, and Allegra leaves for good-but it is Lainey who returns to find that Arch is waiting for her.....

The Foreigner


Gladys Malvern - 1955
    The family of Elimelech has come to the prosperous but alien land of Moab to buy food for their people. Their two sons, though suffering from chronic illness, thrive in this pleasant land, and wives must be found for them. In the same city, two sisters live in a cold and unfriendly home; while blessed with material wealth, they are starving for love and affection. A match is made, and Ruth and her sister Orphah join the affectionate and kind Hebrew family. But tragedy strikes after several happy years, and a long and difficult journey back to the family home in Bethlehem lies ahead. They must make the painful decision of leaving their beloved country and becoming despised outcasts in a land which hates them, or staying and returning to their cold and resentful parents. How can they bear to part from their mother-in-law Naomi, who has loved them so well? But how can they leave their gods and people behind? How can Ruth endure the stigma of being a Foreigner? Out of print for more than 20 years, this special edition is presented in a large, trade size paperback format, suitable for collecting.

That Jones Girl


Elisabeth Hamilton Friermood - 1955
    

White Falcon


Elliott Arnold - 1955
    A frontier boy becomes the courageous leader of the Chippewa Indians and plays an important part in the struggle for control of the fur trade in the Northwest.

Hill Country


Janice Woods Windle - 1955
    The book gives a fascinating account of her close motherly relationship with Lyndon Baines Johnson, former President of the United States, and tells the story of Herman Lehmann, a white boy taken by Indians and raised by them.

Outcast


Rosemary Sutcliff - 1955
    The village druid warns that he is cursed by the sea, and when death comes to the tribe, the fingers of blame point in only one direction. Cast out by the warriors, Beric is left alone without friends or family. With no home and little money, he must survive in the harsh Roman world by himself, with death, danger, and enemies always around the corner... This classic novel is now reissued in a smaller mass-market paperback format.