David Madden was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1933. He interrupted his U.T. study for a stint in the merchant marine and then got a masters from San Francisco State and studied drama at Yale. His teaching career began at Appalachian State in 1958 but centered at Louisiana State University where he taught from 1968 until his retirement in 2008. He has written several books of literary criticism as well as several novels and published poetry in leading literary magazines. This novel draws upon his intense interest in the civil war and its literature to portray the life of a young mountain soldier forced to change sides in the middle of the war.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1996. 160 pages. Trade paperback.