George Hazard, from a wealthy Pennsylvannia industrial family, and Orry Main, the son of a prosperous South Carolina plantation owner, meet at West Point. Their friendship is the beginning of a fateful link between their families. The Hazards and the Mains-their lives entwining, their futures irrevocably connected-achieve their triumphs and suffer their tragedies against the panorama of the turbulent growth that will eventually split the nation.

December, 1864. The 60,000 strong army of General William Tecumseh Sherman has swept it's way through the south, burning Atlanta on its march to the sea. Next in line, the city of Savannah, which Sherman intends to capture as a Christmas present for Abraham Lincoln. When old "Uncle Billy", as Sherman is affectionately called by his troops, rolls into town, he meets his match in the form of 12 year old Miss Hattie-Harriet Lester, a "damned little rebel" who tells it like she sees it.

On Secret Service is the story of a war within a war on various levels: the North versus the South, the Union's Pinkerton Detective Agency versus the Confederacy's agent provocateurs, and youthful idealism versus youthful lust. It chronicles the lives and times of four young Americans, from the war's early tremors in January 1861 through its bloody conclusion: Lincoln's assassination and John Wilkes Booth's murder in May 1865.

In the late 19th century, Newport, Rhode Island, was a cauldron of undeclared class warfare where reputations were made and lost in a whirlwind of parties and fancied slights. Sam Driver, railroad mogul and one of the few surviving robber barons of the lawless years after the Civil War, knocks on the door of fabled Newport, along with his daughter, Jenny, who is determined not to be turned away.

Join John Jakes, the godfather of the historical novel, as he takes you back in time, to the America that once was. The Civil War may be over, but the battles between the Hazards and the Mains have only just begun. Meet the two families whose fates are irrevocably intertwined, and get to know them as they rebuild their lives in the wake of the most devastating war this country has ever seen.

With the sweeping intensity of a master storyteller, best selling author John Jakes brings the Civil War to life in the epic Love and War, the second volume in the North and South Trilogy. In a land ravaged by war, two unforgettable families find their destiny in the searing struggle that surrounds them. This haunting saga weaves fact and fiction into a tapestry of emotions that captures the essence of characters who found themselves at the heart of a nation divided.

Learn the truth behind the mask of Hollywood in these 10 bizarre tales of dreams and dream weavers, movies and movie-makers, by some of the most respected fantasy writers of our time.

The Wild West offers an introduction to WordTheatre's comprehensive survey of the literature inspired by the West. This vital genre has, for the past 150 years, shown us who we are by reflecting the struggles of individuals facing a lawless frontier.