Donald McCaig – författare

Canaan fills a vast canvas. Its points of reference are Richmond in the throes of Reconstruction; the trading floors of Wall Street; a Virginia plantation; and the Great Plains, where the splendidly arrogant George Custer—Yellowhair—rides to his fate against Sitting Bull’s warriors.This is the story of America over twenty years of its most turbulent history. The characters are black, white, and red, ex-Union and ex-Confederate; and the principal narrator is a Santee woman She Goes Before who marries an ex-slave. Through her eyes we witness the hanging of her father by whites in the mass execution of 1863, Red Cloud’s banquet with President Grant, and that final confrontation on the bluffs above the Little Bighorn.

Jacob’s Ladder is a Civil War epic, a love story that pits the indomitable longing of the human heart against circumstances of racism, slavery, and war. Duncan Gatewood, seventeen and heir to the Gatewood plantation, falls in love with Maggie, a mulatto slave, who conceives a son, Jacob. Maggie and Jacob are sold south, and Duncan is packed off to the Virginia Military Institute. As Duncan fights for Robert E. Lee, Jesse—a Gatewood slave whose love for Maggie is unrequited—escapes north and enlists in Lincoln’s army, determined to confront his former masters, while Maggie finds herself living a life she never could have imagined as the wife of a blockade runner.From the interlocked lives of masters and slaves, Donald McCaig conjures a passionate and richly textured story in the heart of America’s greatest war. The destiny of these three compelling characters connect a Vicksburg brothel to a Richmond salon, the nightmare of a Confederate hospital to the lurid hell of battlefields at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.Winner of the John Eston Cook AwardWinner of the Boyd Military Novel Award

The author and his wife bought a rundown Virginian farm in 1971. In this book, he traces the history of the property, based on research and stories from local residents and excerpts from old letters. Life over a quarter of a century is told, including Indian attacks and the American Civil War.

The New York Times–bestselling author Donald McCaig has established an expansive literary career, founded equally on books about working sheepdogs and the Civil War novels Jacob’s Ladder and Rhett Butler’s People, the official sequel to Gone with the Wind. In his new book, Mr. and Mrs. Dog, McCaig draws on twenty-five years of experience raising sheepdogs to vividly describe his—and his dogs June and Luke’s—unlikely progress toward and participation in the World Sheepdog Trials in Wales. McCaig engagingly chronicles the often gruelling experience—through rain, snow, ice storms, and brain-numbing heat—of preparing and trialling Mrs. Dog, June, ""a foxy lady in a slinky black-and-white peignoir,"" and Mr. Dog, Luke, ""a plain worker—no flash to him."" Along the way, he relays sage advice from his decades spent talking with America’s most renowned dog experts, from police-dog trainers to positive-training gurus. As readers of McCaig’s novels will expect, Mr. and Mrs. Dog delivers far more than straightforward dog-training tips. Revealing an abiding love and respect for his dogs, McCaig unveils the life experiences that set him on the long road to the Welsh trial fields. Starting with memories of his first dog, Rascal, and their Montana roadtrip in a ’48 Dodge, McCaig leads us into his thirties, when he abandons his New York advertising career to move to a run-down Appalachian sheep farm in the least populous county in Virginia. This 1960s agrarian adventure ultimately brings McCaig, Luke, and June to the Olympics of sheepdog trials. In his narration of one man’s love for his dogs, McCaig offers a powerful portrayal of the connection between humans and their animal companions.

This astonishing novel that parallels the great American classic novel, Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, has been twelve years in the making. Now, the most beloved and most widely-read saga of the American Civil War is retold from the point of view of its unrivalled hero, the dashing and enigmatic scion of the South, Rhett Butler. See what Rhett is really thinking as he sits in the armchair listening to Scarlett declare her love for Ashley. Find out what happened on the other side of the cupboard, where Melanie was hiding. Discover the truth of Rhett's relationship with Belle Watling...Brought to vivid and authentic life by the hand of a master, RHETT BUTLER'S PEOPLE fulfills the dreams of countless millions whose imaginations have been indelibly marked by Gone With the Wind.' 'Rhett Butler's People covers the period from 1843 to 1874, nearly two decades more than are chronicled in 'Gone With the Wind'. Readers will . . . get inside Rhett's head as he meets and courts Scarlett O'Hara in one of the most famous love affairs of all time.' The New York Times

According to a Scottish saying, "There is no good flock without a good shepherd, and there is no good shepherd without a good dog." Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men is the story of Donald McCaig's search through rural Scotland for just the right sheepdog to bring back to his farm in West Virginia. McCaig delves into the mysterious pact between dog and man, which involves trust and deep communication. Traveling the countryside, to competitions and farms, meeting shepherds and trainers, McCaig introduces us to unforgettable animal and human characters. A must for dog lovers, and anyone interested in the relationship between animals and humans.