ABOUT THIS BOOKMeredith Nicholson stands as the most Hoosier of all Indiana writers, serving as an outspoken advocate for his state. Indiana literary historian Arthur S. Shumaker called Nicholson the “most rabid” of Indiana’s major authors. In addition to writing such national best-sellers as Zelda Dameron and The House of a Thousand Candles, his best-known work, Nicholson won praise as an insightful essayist, with his work published in such national magazines as the Saturday Evening Post and Atlantic Monthly. "His inherent belief in democracy and democratic values, and his unapologetic patriotism permeate his essays," notes Gray, "some of which excoriated the Ku Klux Klan and upheld the rights and virtues of women, attitudes not always popular at the time."
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHYRalph D. Gray is professor emeritus of history at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianpolis and founding editor of the Journal of the Early Republic. He is the author of numerous articles for the Indiana Magazine of History and Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, as well as several books.