The Little World of Edith Endsley

Edith Endsley joined the Army Nurse Corps in 1943 during World War II at the age of twenty-one and was assigned to the navy hospital ship U.S.S. Mercy. In the course of duty in the Pacific Theater of Operations she, two other nurses, and a Catholic priest were sent ashore on a small Japanese island to tend to American and Japanese wounded at the request of a high-ranking Japanese officer. This proved to be a ruse. The priest was killed and the three nurses were told to go to a geisha house where they were stripped, drugged, and massaged by three geishas. When Edith woke up she had reason to believe that she had been raped but there was no evidence. Upon discharge from the service Edie returned home to small-town Missouri with a severe case of androphobia, an intense fear of men. Aboard ship Edith met a young ensign who promised to look her up after the war. He did but Edith decided to become a nun and a friendship between Ensign Danny and Elizabeth, Edith's younger sister, turned romantic and when Edith decided to leave the convent Danny and Elizabeth are in love.

Edward Beardsley was born in Chicago and spent his first seventeen years there. He dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Navy. After boot camp he was assigned to Task Force 68, Operation Highjump, bound for Antarctica under command of Admiral Richard E. Byrd. He earned a B.A. from Westminster College in Missouri and later his M.A. from Stetson University in Florida. He spent thirty-one years as a teacher and principal in the Volusia County, Florida public schools. He retired to write fiction beginning with short stories that led him to the novel, of which AMETHYST is his third. He has driven a cab in Chicago, wrestled alligators and trained porpoises in Daytona Beach. He spent twenty years running long distance races from the mile to the marathon and played tennis most of his life. He has been a jazz drummer from childhood. He and his wife, Ann, raised two children, James and Mary, both graduates of the University of Florida. Edward lives and writes in San Mateo, F.L.