Sunrise — Jacquelyn Cook

Georgia author Jacquelyn Cook has crafted a unique novel of southern history from 1849-1887, that tells the true story of Anne Tracy and her railroad baron husband, William Butler Johnston. Extensive research enhanced by family reminiscence entrusted to the author by their great-grandson, George Felton, makes the Johnston's unusual love story come alive as they tour Europe and return to Macon, Georgia, to construct what is known as the last great antebellum mansion built in the South before the Civil War. The intricate Italianate architecture of the Johnston-Felton-Hay House makes it a treasure now open to the public.

The biography of poet Sidney Lanier forms the subplot from his tender courtship of Mary Day as she refugees at Wesleyan College while fleeing Federal invaders of her coastal home, to Lanier's consumption contracted in a Union prison, to his rise as a poet/musician, through his untimely death.

In Huntsville, Alabama, Anne's brother Brigadier General Edward Don Tracy, Jr. becomes one of the youngest generals of the Confederacy. He is a hero at Vicksburg. His old-fashioned love affair with Ellen Steel is unforgettable.

The bloody boots of Civil War and Reconstruction change everyone's lives. Only when Sidney Lanier's transcendent love brings Anne to the freeing power of forgiveness can she find the happiness that could not be bought with all of their gold.