High Bridge

Upstate New York in the mid-19th century is a cauldron bubbling with the lure of fast fortunes, religious zealotry, and battles for civil liberties. This fervor centers on the Erie Canal, which successfully supports scores of villages brimming with opportunity. One such village, Fayetteville, shapes the lives of two future American leaders.

High Bridge tells the stories of a young newlywed, the only child of freethinking abolitionists, and a prankster lad who grows up in the large family of an austere reverend. Despite their different childhoods and worldviews, they form an unlikely friendship. Can they combine their skills to solve a mystery and vindicate a Black man accused of murder?

Pages: 382
Pub Date: 03-23-2023
Softcover: 22.95 9781646638116
Hardcover: 31.95 9781646638130

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The reviews are in…

"High Bridge by Michael Miller is a brilliantly crafted novel that blends true history and fiction to tell a story of two American icons. Miller utilizes the actual history that Grover Cleveland and Matilda Joslyn Gage both lived in the Fayetteville, NY, area at the same time in the mid-nineteenth century. With no existing historical proof available on how much a young Grover Cleveland may have known or interacted with Mrs. Gage during this time, Miller fills in the gaps with compelling fiction. He tells a wonderful story of what might have been, truly capturing the essence that history knows both Cleveland and Gage to be: honest, fair, and defenders of human rights. As a historian and a native of the Fayetteville-Manlius area, I can attest to Miller's impeccable research in writing this fascinating novel."

-Laurence L. Cook, Presidential Historian and Author of Presidential Coincidences, Amazing Facts, and Collectibles, and Symbols of Patriotism: First Ladies and Daughters of the American Revolution
"A highly engaging and thought-provoking journey into what might have resulted if suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage and future president Grover Cleveland, who lived in the upstate village of Fayetteville at different times, had instead known each other and become friends. By endowing them with a twenty-first-century social justice consciousness, the author skillfully invites us to consider the issues they faced, which we still do today."

-Sally Roesch Wagner, Founder and Executive Director, Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation and Museum, and Author of The Women's Suffrage Movement, We Want Equal Rights!: The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on the Women's Rights Movement, Matilda Joslyn Gage: She Who Holds the Sky, and other books
"A moving and inspirational novel, beautifully rendered, with evocative themes and fascinating characters. Author Michael Miller's depiction of nineteenth-century Upstate New York leaps off the page with vibrant images, pitch-perfect language, and nuances of customs and behaviors. The book's themes are particularly relevant; the nascent perspectives of nineteenth-century progressives with respect to inclusivity and equality, which the book so vividly portrays, are still unrealized-and are in fact currently under attack in our nation."

-Robert Steven Goldstein, Author of Will's Surreal Period, Cat's Whisker, Enemy Queen, and The Swami Deheftner, and other novels

Michael Miller was born in a small town in New Jersey similar to Fayetteville, NY. He played baseball, delivered the daily newspaper, and tramped through the woods. Through small town life, he learned to respect people regardless of their backgrounds and appreciate the gifts each person brought to the world. Miller continues to get great joy from his family, exploring the outdoors, and his volunteer community service.

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