“A railroad story which will interest men and boys.”
+ Booklist 16:282 My ’20 + N Y Times 25:153 Ap 4 ’20 700w
“The story maintains the author’s reputation as a teller of entertaining tales.”
+ − Springf’d Republican p11a Jl 18 ’20 140w
LYNN, MARGARET. Free soil. *$2.50 (2c) Macmillan
20–20945
A story of the fight for free soil in Kansas in the fifties. Among the New England recruits to the free soil population are John and Ellen Truman, who give up ease and security and take their two young children into the new and strange land. With them goes Ellen’s cousin Harvey Sayre, young and high-spirited and ripe for adventure. Later another cousin, Phoebe Murray, comes for a visit, and refusing to be sent back to safety, remains to play her part with the other women. Even before reaching Kansas the Trumans have a taste of the tense relations between North and South and they are in the heart of the struggle from the moment of their arrival. Another struggle no less interesting is revealed within the ranks of the free-soilers, between the advocates of violence and those who stand for peaceful methods. The figure of John Brown as he moves through these pages differs somewhat from popular legend. The love story of Phoebe and Lewis Hardie, the high courage of the women, and the author’s very evident love for the prairies lighten the somberness of the story.
“Miss Lynn has not only made her story interesting and her characters alive; she has pictured the country itself as few writers have pictured it. ‘Free soil’ is a noble book, a living book, a book to read and to remember. In its blending of fiction and history it is a notable achievement.”