McDaniel, Gerald 1936-

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McDANIEL, Gerald 1936-

PERSONAL: Born November 20, 1936. Education: University of Louisville, B.A., J.D.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, VanMeter Publishing, P.O. Box 1268, Jeffersonville, IN 47131.

CAREER: Jefferson County, KY, assistant county attorney in the Child Support Division. Military service: Served in U.S. Army.

WRITINGS:

Aindreas: The Messenger, Louisville, KY, 1855, Van-Meter Publishing (Jeffersonville, IN), 2000.

Aindreas: The Scribe, 1865 (sequel to Aindreas: TheMessenger, Louisville, KY, 1855), VanMeter Publishing (Jeffersonville, IN), 2002.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A novel, tentatively titled Night Sweats and Graffıti; the third and fourth volumes of the "Aindreas" saga, titled Aindreas: The Odyssey, 1876-1892, projected date of publication 2004, and Aindreas: The Dissenter, 1918, projected date of publication 2006.

SIDELIGHTS: Gerald McDaniel grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, the child of a working-class family who experienced firsthand all of the lessons growing up in the city had to offer. His interest in history led him to write the saga of Aindreas, a boy born in Louisville just before the U.S. Civil War.

Beverly J. Rowe interviewed McDaniel for MyShelf. com and asked him why he set the beginning of his saga in this time period. McDaniel replied that "the choice was irresistible. The nation born with such great hope near the close of the eighteenth century faced utter failure, and the first industrial war in history lay only six years away. The Bloody Monday riot of 1855 both represented and predicted the savage cruelty that usually follows unresolved ethnic and class hatreds. . . . I became morbidly fascinated with this event that the Louisville establishment doesn't care to talk about a great deal . . . an event where the victims were blamed, and polite society tried to act as if the whole thing didn't amount to much."

The first volume, Aindreas: The Messenger, Louisville, KY, 1855 finds the thirteen-year-old Irish-Catholic child living in a time when being Catholic, German, or black could be dangerous. Aindreas Rivers works as a messenger for a furniture manufacturer, bringing his wages home to his dying mother and poor family facing eviction. The city is on the verge of the Bloody Monday riots, and thugs have been paid to intimidate voters as election day draws close.

Aindreas, who hangs around the waterfront watching the riverboats, finds a friend in Isaac White, an adult slave who is to be sold at auction and torn from his family. The boy, who suffers from epileptic seizures he doesn't understand, vows to help Isaac, and when the violence erupts he has the chance to save his black friend, as well as his Irish and German friends, from danger. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called this first volume "a well-crafted, exciting, and heartwarming tale of a boy's courage and innocence, somehow existing in a bleak society rife with corruption, bigotry, and injustice."

As Aindreas: The Scribe, 1865 opens, Aindreas has served during the early years of the Civil War and is now working as a society reporter for the Louisville Scribe. Real historical events and figures appear in the story. The Galt House fire is such an event, and in the book, Aindreas saves the Reverend Paul Mason Sharpe and his family and dog from its flames. After doing so, he begins to court the older Sharpe daughter, Lorelei, a young woman who pits her suitors against each other.

When Isaac's daughter, Sarah, returns, she and Aindreas fall deeply in love, but in 1865 Louisville interracial marriage is strictly forbidden and so she becomes his mistress. Other characters include Carl Workman, captain of the ship Alexander Hamilton, and Aindreas's brother, Michael, who returns to Louisville with his wife and daughter, Dorrie, with whom Aindreas shares his love of books. The narratives of this volume are divided among Aindreas, Dorrie, and Faith Sharpe, the Reverend's younger daughter.

Louisville was divided in its loyalties during the Civil War, and the horrors of war are exposed through Aindreas's newspaper articles. Gene Hayworth reviewing this second volume for http://Compulsive Reader.com, noted that Aindreas "takes fascination in describing the Rebel Sue Mundy, and when Mundy is captured, Aindreas covers the trial and execution for the newspaper. Here McDaniel weaves fiction and fact, using the legend of the rebel guerrilla Sue Mundy . . . to illustrate the desperate measures undertaken by both Union and Confederate forces to settle the question of slavery." Mundy is hanged in March 1865 while Aindreas is reading A Tale of Two Cities to Dorrie, the plot of which parallels the plot of McDaniel's novel. Judith Saul wrote for Best Reviews online that Aindreas: The Scribe, 1865 "has something for everyone, historical facts, adventure, and romance. Even if you are not a fan of history, this set of books will make you one."