The First Ward
Language: English
Published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2011
Series: Book 1 of 5 - The First Ward
- Softcover
- Used
Seller: World of Books (was SecondSale), Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.World of Books (was SecondSale)
AbeBooks seller since December 20, 2007
Condition: Used - Very good
£ 3.10
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Add to basketItem description from seller
Volume One of Richard Sullivan's Trilogy is a sweeping historical novel of the Irish-American grab for power in Buffalo NY in the 19th Century and the personalities involved: newspaper editors, politicians, thugs and innocents. Newlywed Sam Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain, was gifted with a spledid home with servants, as well as a part ownership of the Buffalo Express newspaper by his generous father-in-law, yet the Great American Storyteller would find neither happiness nor success in this unruly city. When First Ward dock-walloper Fingy Conners' family members all died mysteriously within a single year, he inherited everything, including his father's saloon. Using his saloon as the key, he set out to control labor contracting on Buffalo's docks. So overwhelming was his iron-handed saloon-boss system that within a few years he controlled the entirety of shipping on the Great Lakes, ascending to enormous wealth and power in less than a decade, defrauding voters, installing his own puppet politicians, and dominating the entire Buffalo Police Department. By hiring, paying, feeding, watering and boarding laborers out of his saloons, Conners enslaved thousands of families in Buffalo and all around the Great Lakes in misery and hunger for two decades. After the Sullivan Brothers were placed in an orphanage by their destitute mother following the death of their Union soldier father in the Civil War, poverty, insecurity and violence infected their lives. John P. Sullivan, the city's powerful First Ward alderman, was installed in that office by Fingy Conners and held it for a quarter century. The brothers grew up with Conners and maintained their troubled alliance with the saloon-boss throughout their lives. Brother James' fortuitous encounter with Mark Twain as a boy, soon after the famous author moved to Buffalo to edit the Buffalo Express newspaper, and the friendship it initiated, would have a remarkable influence on James for the rest of his life. As Detective Sergeant James E. Sullivan of the Buffalo Police Department, Jim lacked his brother's blind ambition, and found himself caught up amid forces he could not surmount. He was compelled to follow the orders of his Sheehan-Conners controlled superiors and to rescue his brother from the endless messes the Alderman created for himself. Jack White, secret murderer and Boston politician, was Buffalo's most powerful alderman, ever. Posing as a Republican, White helped pave the way for the rise of Democrats Sheehan, Sullivan and Conners. But once he'd served his purpose, his former allies swiftly did away with him. In the middle of this maelstrom are the Sullivan wives; the Alderman's Annie, who is blinded to what's transpiring around her by the perks she enjoys due to her husband's status, and the Detective's Hannah, who is rewarded with little more an endless stream of grief and frustration for standing by her spouse.…
Seller Inventory # 00107502738
- Title
- The First Ward
- Author
- Richard Sullivan
- Publisher
- Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
- Publication year
- 2011
- Condition
- Very Good
- Binding
- Paperback
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 146363658X
- ISBN 13
- 9781463636586
- Series
- Book 1 of 5: The First Ward
Get ready to be astonished at what this now-forgotten actual historical figure was not only capable of—but got away with.
If Fingy Conners had sprung from some writer’s fanciful imaginings, just such a character would be dismissed as outlandish and improbable, so thoroughly and so swiftly did this man accrue wealth, political power and cruel domination over so many. Based on over a thousand newspaper and magazine articles written about him, the character of Fingy Conners serves as a template for how thoroughly someone who asserts unmitigated authority, backed by audacious lies and unrelenting threats of violence and retribution, can rise to the top unchallenged.
Fingy Conners’ domination is best viewed though the eyes of the First Ward’s Sullivan Brothers and their wary families. Living in houses side-by-side at river’s edge amid industrial bedlam, Police Detective Sergeant Jim Sullivan resists as best he might Conners’ smothering oversee, while his younger brother John P. Sullivan, obsessed with attaining political power, eagerly crosses over to the dark side as a Conners ally.
Complicating matters is the presence of Jim’s brother-in-law David J. Nugent, mentored from a young age by Conners to assume the role of his chief lieutenant and enforcer of violence and murder. Nugent’s persistent criminality stirs conflict in Jim’s otherwise strong marriage to Nugent’s apologist sister, Hannah.
At the opposite end of the spectrum from Fingy Conners lies the great Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain. Whilst co-owner of the Buffalo Express newspaper, Clemens takes teenage Jim Sullivan under his wing, sensing the deep wounding having been suffered by the youth. Sam instills hope and purpose at the cusp of Jim’s manhood where little previously existed, even as Clemens himself continues to suffer great distress and deep personal loss.
All of the personalties in The First Ward novel series are real people who lived and breathed and walked the streets. The core characters are the author’s own ancestors.
THE FIRST WARD is a sweeping 5-part novel series set in Buffalo’s Irish waterfront First Ward, from 1850 to 1935, immortalizing the many actual historical figures who struggled to make their mark on this world, ranging from America's CIA founder, "Wild Bill" Donovan to those who have undeservedly faded into oblivion. Buy it now!
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World of Books (was SecondSale)
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