Books & Essays

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  Title:
  The Dodge Land Troubles, 1868-1923
  
  Date Published:
  2004 (co-authored with Chris Trowell)

  Description:
  The Dodge Land Troubles, 1868-1923, is a history book which contains articles from newspapers in the three-rivers area of the State of Georgia. It is the result of over fifty years of research. These articles, some published in the 1830s, tell the history of the Dodge family?s timber depletion during their 55-year tenure in the counties of Telfair, Dodge, Pulaski, Laurens, and Montgomery, a 500-square-mile area of longleaf yellow pine timber, some of which was several hundred years old.
  
  This book records the history upon which the historical novel Widow of Sighing Pines is based. They are ?companion books.?
  
  Book Review #1:
  ?This is a daring and comprehensive telling of a story almost lost to us. Only the graveyards and the destroyed forests bear witness to the gigantic loss of the Dodge wars. To know our past is to know who we are. I read this fascinating history with great interest and no small degree of grief for my homeland and my people. The inclusion of newspaper accounts, legal documents, and oral histories add to the power of this fine and long-awaited book. It is a gripping story, well-told.? Janisse Ray
  
  

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• 

  Title:
  Widow of Sighing Pines
  
  Date Published:
  2003

  Description:
  After the end of the War Between the States, in 1868, the piney woods area of Georgia is invaded by the timber magnate, William E. Dodge, and his sons of New York. For forty years, they harvest five hundred square miles of the finest longleaf yellow pine timber in the world, which is rafted or sent by rail to the port cities of Darien and St. Simons, where ships from other countries anchor to take it onboard.
  
  Though the Dodges have questionable deeds to this land, the local people have their own deeds. A land war ensues. The forty-year timber war in the piney woods of Georgia becomes the personal struggle of a Northern widow and a Southern backwoodsman in post-Reconstruction South.
  
  Katharine Fremont, widowed when her husband is killed, allegedly by angry ?squatters,? is advised to hire the Southern backwoodsman, Micah MacRae, known to be the leader of the beleaguered ?squatters,? but the best raftsman on the rivers, to cut and raft her timber.
  
  To insure that she obtains the best price for her timber from the corrupt Darien timber inspector, she decides to ride her own raft of logs to Darien. Too, this wild trip on the Ocmulgee and Altamaha rivers with Micah MacRae should free her from her attraction to the ?best damn timber pilot on the three rivers.?
  
  According to many readers, the highlight of Widow of Sighing Pines is the authentic rafting trip down the Ocmulgee and Altamaha rivers. To prepare for writing the novel, Jane Walker spent many hours on the rivers, learning about the tides and the dangers inherent in rafting the giant timber to the coast.
  
  Book Review #1:
  "A love story as beautiful as the landscape that engendered it." Janisse Ray
  
  Book Review #2:
  Bill Boyd, writer for the Macon Telegraph, said: ?But let me say this about Jane Walker?s writing ability: She can weave a tale of danger and romance as well as anyone, and...the characters she creates seem real enough to touch....?
  
  Book Review #3:
  Patty Proctor, Guide to Georgia, said: ?The book is well-researched; well-written; a captivating story; an interesting way to learn Georgia history.?
  
  

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