Land Beyond

by Sam McClanahan


Formats

Softcover
£20.49
£11.90
Softcover
£11.90

Book Details

Language : English
Publication Date : 05/08/2008

Format : Softcover
Dimensions : 6x9
Page Count : 580
ISBN : 9781434383990

About the Book

    On a cold, blustery November day in 1718, three young men late of County Tyrone in Ireland's northern province of Ulster, bade the crew of the good ship Cape Fear a fond farewell before descending the gangplank onto Philadelphia's crowded wharf to begin a new life they prayed would be more prosperous than the one they'd left behind beyond the stormy North Atlantic. Three months earlier, Samuel and John MacLean and their cousin, Brian Lynch, finally made the heart-wrenching decision to leave Ireland and their loved ones in order to seek a better life in America. Like thousands of their countrymen, who the American colonists called "Scots Irish," the MacLean brothers and their cousin were now part of the mass exodus from Ulster bound for America. This great migration of Protestant Irishmen was destined to continue unabated for the next fifty years or so until America's vast, far-flung frontier stretching from western Pennsylvania south to the Carolinas would eventually be filled with fiery-tempered, independent-minded Scots-Irish whose desire for land on which to "grow their bread" and raise their blue-eyed, red and blond-haired children seemed insatiable.
    After four long years in Philadelphia, the three young Ulstermen, after serving the terms of their indentures, were finally able to head west in search of land of their own. The eastern, blocking-edge of the Alleghenies forced the lads to turned south into Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. It was in this beautiful valley that reminded them so much of Ireland that they built their first log cabin. In the years ahead, each one, in turn, would meet, fall in love, marry and sire children. Later descendants of MacLeans and Lynches would courageously meet and overcome challenges arising from hostile Indians, the French bent on gaining control of North America from their age-old enemy, Great Britain, and the British whose oppression they could no longer endure. This fast-paced, romantic, historically-accurate, generational saga continues the quest for freedom and a better way of life began in the author's first book, "From Glen to Glen." "Land Beyond" as well as "From Glen to Glen" should cause Americans living today to appreciate their heritage even more as they are reminded of the courage and fortitude of those hearty, freedom-loving men and women who sacrificed so much in shaping what has now become the greatest nation in the world. 


About the Author

        Sam McClanahan was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 1938. In 1963, he received a Bachelor of Science degree from Middle Tennessee State University. After a tour of duty in the U.S. Navy, Sam began work on a master's degree in education at his alma mater where he graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1973. While pursuing his life-long career as an educator in the Tennessee Department of Education, Sam worked tirelessly for thirty-four years toward the improvement of education throughout his native state. Retirement has provided Sam more time to pursue his love of writing. In 2003 his first book, "From Glen to Glen" was published. Since then, he has published "Land Beyond," the sequel to his first book, and has just recently completed a third novel in this series titled, "Rage of Eagles," that, hopefully, will be published and available to readers in the not too distant future. In addition to writing, Sam enjoys oil painting, reading and listening to classical, jazz and '40's and '50's era popular music. Sam and his wife, Elizabeth, make their home in the beautiful, rolling hills of Rutherford County, Tennessee where their ancestors have lived for over two hundred years. Sam and Liz are the parents of two sons and grandparents of three granddaughters.