The Stubborn Heart

Dr. Julian Chisholm #2

by Frank G. Slaughter

Vintage paperback

Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Frank Gill Slaughter , pen-name Frank G. Slaughter, pseudonym C.V. Terry, was an American novelist and physician whose books sold more than 60 million copies. His novels drew on his own experience as a doctor and his interest in history and the Bible. Through his novels, he often introduced readers to new findings in medical research and new medical technologies.

Slaughter was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Stephen Lucious Slaughter and Sarah "Sallie" Nicholson Gill. When he was about five years old, his family moved to a farm near Berea, North Carolina, which is west of Oxford, North Carolina. He earned a bachelor's degree from Trinity College (now Duke University) at 17 and went to medical school at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He began writing fiction in 1935 while a physician at Riverside Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.

Books by Slaughter include The Purple Quest, Surgeon, U.S.A., Epidemic! , Tomorrow's Miracle and The Scarlet Cord. Slaughter died May 17, 2001 in Jacksonville, Florida.

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came accross this short novel in my parents garage, rumaging through my grandmothers old books for something to read. It's a post civil war novel, taking place in the south. If I remember correctly - they family being told about had released the slaves on their plantation before the war had ended, which made this family a bunch of traitors.
The main characters family (which I believe on consisted of her and her father) met with resistence from their neighbors and other plantation owners in the area. They were continually being harassed and threatened with violence and death.
To find out more, read it. Not a bad book for being so unknown about.

[Lynette Lark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1950, this book begins with the end of the Civil War and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. I got the impression that, initially, the KKK was a force for good in that it wanted to rid the south of carpetbaggers. But like all things, especially clandestine nightshirts, it twisted into the evil that power often creates. But I loved the characters--Hoyt, the upper class lawyer who reeked of elegance and rum; Lucy, who was far too ambitious for a lady of that time; Jane, the antithesis of the Southern Belle who wears denim pants and organizes the bushwhackers who fight against the KKK and protect the plantation that she and Julian are restoring; Julian, the medical doctor who saves the lives of bushwhackers and night-riders alike and anyone else who can make his way to the "hospital" Julian created in the old slave quarters; Louis, the Jewish doctor who works in the hospital; and Noah, the black doctor who worked there as well until he attacked by the KKK; Amos and Lafe, who are crack shot bushwhackers and who protect Julian and Jane's plantation against the KKK. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the post-Civil War era.

[Christine Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading a book written over 70 years ago is interesting. This one is historical fiction and shows the South/North Carolina just after the Civil War. An unsettled time when the KKK arose and civil rights were being trampled. The novel ends on a hopeful note, but I must wonder what the author would think if he were around to write about today's world.

[Jerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read!