I Am General Eaton!

With the blessings of the Caribou, Maine, Historical Society, Turner (First John) spins a dramatic, irreverent yarn based on the true story of one of America's unsung early heroes. By 1805, the fledgling United States are already in international trouble with the Barbary pirates of North Africa. Four years later, General William Eaton, the hero of the Barbary Wars, tells a besotted crowd at Boston's Bunch of Grapes tavern how he, with a few Marines and naval warships, brought the Pasha of Tripoli to his knees, raised the new American flag for the first time over a city of the Old World and ended the pirates' reign of seaborne terror. A competent, fearless soldier, a brash leader and a slickly manipulative diplomat, Eaton is also an energetic philanderer and drinker. Whether he's fighting Indians in Ohio and Georgia with the Continental Army, leading a band of mercenaries across 500 miles of Saharan desert to take the Libyan city of Derne or romping with the doxies at Boston's infamous Red String, Eaton's adventures will keep his readers as rapt as the barflies who buy his Madeira. (Dec.) FYI: Born on a farm in Mapleton, Maine, and trained as a soil scientist, Turner writes that his interest in Eaton ""arose from the title search to my Caribou, Maine, property, which is on a portion of the original Eaton Land Grant.""