SOLVED. Family Series from the 1950's [s]

[Coralie]

I'm trying to remember the author or names of the books in a series I read a while ago. Each book was a new generation of the same family and I believe there were six or eight books in all.

[Rachel]

Hey Coralie,

Where were the books set? Any idea of the author's nationality? Anything else you can remember, eg snippets of the plots?

[bup]

Was this a YA series, or for adults?

[Coralie]

These books were not a set (at least as I recall). I think they may have been issued through a book club as the woman who owned them had many shelves of books, mostly from current book clubs at the time (1950's) such as Double Day.

I remember one of the generations once worked a farm. One of the generations might have crossed the plains to the western states of the U.S. Also, the name Cameron keeps coming to mind although I don't have a clue if it is connected to these books or some other book from some other time.

One of the things that was so engaging and poignant about the books is that the reader gets to know the young couple starting out in life, having a family and living life and then they are old and the next book is about THEIR children and THEIR story and so on. So with each book there was a sense of a new beginning but also a sense of loss.

[Coralie]

I don't think this was a YA series.

[This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For]

This sounds like John Jakes, particularly the Kent Family Chronicles (The Bastard, The Rebels, The Seekers, etc.)

[Coralie]

I've already responded to Michael and I appreciate his trying to solve this one. I do not believe that John Jakes was already a published author in the 1950's. Thanks for the heads-up!

[Coralie]

Diana, This is sounding like a very strong possibility! I thought there were more than three books in the "series" but what you describe here sounds very much like what I read and loved. Even the author's name seems to ring a bell for me. I will follow up and see what I can find out for certain. Thank you so much!

[Coralie]

Diana,
I looked up the trilogy on amazon.com and now I don't think this is the family saga I'm trying to find. It looks like the characters are the same throughout the trilogy and the books I remember covered several generations of the same family. Any other ideas anyone? I'm dying to find these books again!

[Coralie]

Diana, You are amazing! I think (but will work to confirm) that you have found my "lost" books. Everything looks & sounds like the novels I read and the dates of publication work. It looks like there were twelve books in the Carolina Series (probably why I remember reading at least five) beginning with Raleigh's Eden published in 1940 and ending with Rogue's Harbor published in 1964. Thank you! I am now on a mission to locate some of these books!

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Raleigh's Eden for the link

Rogue's Harbor

Coralie, was the Carolina Series the one you were looking for?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

No response, moving to Solved.