Charming, insightful and immensely entertaining in its unique presentation of one of America's legendary figures, Mount Vernon Love Story, by Mary Higgins Clark, shows the reader the man behind the legend, a man of flesh, blood and passion, and in the author's skilled hands, the story and the man come fully and dramatically alive.
Mary Higgins Clark's interest in George Washington was first sparked by a radio series she was writing in the 1960s, on American presidents.
Always a lover of history, she wrote this biographical novel -- her first book -- and titled it Aspire to the Heavens, the family motto of Washington's mother. The book was published in 1969. Its recent discovery by a Washington family descendent led to this reissue under its new title.
In researching Washington's life, Mary Higgins Clark was surprised to find the engaging man behind the pious legend. He was a giant of a man in every way, starting with his physical height. He was the best dancer in the colony of Virginia and also a master horseman.
She dispels the widespread belief that although George Washington married an older woman, a widow, his true love was Sally Carey Fairfax, his best friend's wife. Martha Dandridge Custis was older, but only by three months. Mary Higgins Clark describes their relationship from their first meeting, their closeness and his tenderness toward her two children. Martha shared his life in every way, crossing the British lines to join him in Boston and enduring with him the bitter hardship of the winter in Valley Forge.
In Mount Vernon Love Story, Mary Higgins Clark tells the story of a rare marriage and brings to life the human side of the man who became the "father of our country."
