CONTRARY WINDS

A subdued, fictional history, written in the first person, which reads almost like a matter-of-fact diary, set in Edinburgh, London, the Caribbean, and New York, during the 1780's. The narrator is a young Scots gentleman who aspires to be an actor but who is blown by contrary winds to the Caribbean where he weds a beautiful heiress and soon inherits, at her death, a merchant fortune. Returning to Edinburgh, he is again driven away by a framed murder charge, he goes to London, incidentally to hobnob with Jonson, Boswell, Garrick, etc., and to persuade the government against cutting his trade with the American colonies. Business takes him to the Caribbean and his partner's widow, with whom he is rescued from a shipwreck by John Paul Jones, and they are landed in New York. There the pair marry, serve as agents for the American cause, and return to Edinburgh in time to intercede when Jones demands his ransom. They are caught aboard the Bonhomme Richard in the famous fight with the Serapis. After such adventure they settle down in New York in 1891. Romantic, historical excitement in unstressed, well-dressed style.