Star of Empire - Hardcover

Sanders, Leonard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385299168 ISBN 13: 9780385299169

Publisher: Delacorte Press, 1992

Synopsis

Back in South Carolina to claim his inheritance and save his kid brother from their abusive father, Tad Logan meets Corrie McNair, the woman of his dreams and the fiance of Charleston's most eligible bachelor

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

Sanders's latest Texas novel (Texas Noon, Fort Worth, etc.) is, for want of anything more fitting, a good old-fashioned read. The heroes may be a bit too sturdy and the damsels plucky in the extreme, but this tale of the early days of the Texas Republic and the Logan family's dreams and ambitions is perfect for whiling away an evening or two. Tad Logan, a hero of the Texas Revolution, comes to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1839 in order to demand his inheritance from his father. He finds more than he sought, however, eventually returning to Texas with a new bride, Corrie McNair (whom he woos away from her fianc‚), his younger brother, and her younger sister. Against all advice, the four settle in San Antonio, a beautiful site threatened by both Mexicans and Indians. As Tad becomes deeply involved in politics as part of his effort to create the independent nation of his dreams and to deal with the increasingly thorny debate over whether the Republic should willingly annex itself to the US, he begins to pay less and less attention to his family. Corrie's jilted suitor, Ramsey Cothburn, comes to Texas himself, creating several emotional crises over the years. Younger brother Whit eventually chooses a career with the Texas Rangers, fighting on the Mexican border (both brothers will spend time in Mexican prisons). Younger sister Prue grows into a beautiful woman with conflicting romantic desires, resulting in some rather melodramatic goings-on in the latter stages of the novel. The story continues through the annexation of Texas in 1845 and to the Civil War, in which Whit's and Tad's sons, Jim and Albert, fight for the Confederacy. A fairy tale of the American West, but most certainly not one in which everyone lives happily ever after. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly

The author of Fort Worth turns his attention to old San Antonio in this romantic historical western, which begins shortly after the fall of the Alamo. With his new wife, Charleston, S.C.-born Corrie, Tad Logan, a headstrong black-sheep son of a wealthy Georgia plantation-owning family, takes his limitless ambitions to the infant Republic of Texas. It seems a place of almost inexhaustible potential, where residents can pursue their dreams of manifest destiny all the way to the Pacific, if only some Mexicans and Indians can be displaced. Such historical figures as mercurial, alcoholic Sam Houston and megalomaniac Mirabeau Lamar ("the Buonaparte of Texas") interact with the fictional characters as historical events--most importantly, the ill-conceived Santa Fe expedition--are woven into the story. While characters seem to debate events more than live them in the slow-moving plot, Sanders nevertheless captures the combination of avarice, bravado and courage associated with the era and the formation of Texas.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0385299168
• ISBN 13: 9780385299169
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 437