Raleighʻs Eden
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 | |
| Author | Inglis Fletcher |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Bobbs-Merrill |
Publication date | 23 September 1940[1] |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 662 |
Raleigh's Eden is a 1940 American historical novel by Inglis Fletcher, the first of her "Carolina Series" series; an additional eleven books in the series were published through 1952.[2]
The novel is set primarily in Edenton, along the Albemarle Sound, and in other nearby North Carolina locales, and takes place between the years 1765 and 1782.[3] The plot follows fictional plantation owner Adam Rutledge who becomes romantically entangled with multiple female characters (including an "Arabian priestess slave-girl, Azizi") while becoming a major resistance fighter against real historical figures like governors Edmund Fanning and William Tryon.Rutledge's primary romantic interest is young married socialite Mary Warden, while both Adam and his cousin Peyton are seduced by Lady Caroline Clothilde, "a female pirate." Fictional characters are shown witnessing or participating in the Edenton Tea Party, the arrest of Herman Husband, and demonstrations against the Stamp Act; historical figures who are depicted include Nathanael Greene, Samuel Johnston, and Charles Cornwallis.[4]
Development
Fletcher began working on the novel in 1934 and was reportedly inspired to start researching the period while at a tea party at an unnamed historic venue in London;[5] she also drew on stories her mother and grandmother had told her about Colonial North Carolina.[6] She wrote most of the novel while living in San Francisco, relying on sources in from the Bancroft Library, the United States Army Library, and the California State Library; in the novel's foreword, she thanked Hollywood actor Randolph Scott as one of the individuals or institutions "who supplied data on early Virginia and North Carolina." She also made research trips to Edenton, conducting research at the Cupola House Museum, the vestry archives of St. Paul's Episcopal Church and other libraries in the area.[7] The character of Azizi was inspired by her experiences living in North Africa.[8]
Publication
As with Fletcher's subsequent Carolina novels, Raleigh's Eden was first published by Bobbs-Merrill. A numbered, limited edition of the first Bobbs-Merrill impression, called the "North Carolina Edition," featured a special tip-in signed by both Fletcher and North Carolina Governor Clyde R. Hoey.[9] By the fall of 1943, it was reported that Raleigh's Eden and its follow-up, the prequel Men of Albemarle, had been published in Britain and Sweden and had been translated into Swedish and Danish.[10]