Release Date: November 29, 2022
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-57869-116-6
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-57869-118-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022910139
eBook: 978-1-57869-119-7
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Synopsis

With an engaging cast of characters, Granite Kingdom is a complex yet balanced look at the granite industry and newspaper business in rural Vermont in the early 1900s.

It is 1910, and the northern Vermont village Granite Junction is the nation’s largest supplier of finished granite for construction. Newspaper reporter Dan Strickland, a stonecutter’s son who hopes to find the right wife and climb the social ladder, finds himself caught between the village’s two big granite producers, George Rutherford and Ernest Wheeler. Several fatal industrial accidents prompt Rutherford to ask Dan to look for anarchist saboteurs, while Bob Blackstone, Wheeler’s right-hand man, bullies Dan for working for the paper that supports their competitor. Despite the prosperity at the top, almost everyone in the village struggles to attain economic security; some fear ending up at the poor farm. Although Dan triumphs in the end, it is not in the way he had imagined.

Praise

“In Granite Kingdom, Eric Pope deftly and vividly recreates a fascinating era in Vermont history and peoples it with characters who are just as ambitious and honorable—and greedy and underhanded—as their contemporaries today. A popping good read for any fan of historical fiction.”

—Evan Thomas, author of Ike’s Bluff and First: Sandra Day O’Connor

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“In Eric Pope’s Granite Kingdom, small-town New England in 1910 bristles with industrial conflict, class prejudice, and the petty insults of village life. Pope’s microcosmic recreation of American life before the Great War is a polished gem of historical fiction.”

—Arthur S. Brisbane, former editor of the Kansas City Star and former public editor of the New York Times

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“Granite Kingdom is a compelling story about a small Vermont town grappling with the changes that swept many American communities in the early twentieth century. It is a welcome addition to Vermont's granite story.” 

—Scott McLaughlin, executive director of Vermont Granite Museum

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“Granite Kingdom brings to life a whole era with its engaging cast of characters, its rich, accurate detail, and its knowledgeable presentation of the technology, the struggles of the workers and management, and the life of the community. It is a great read.”

—Scudder Parker, Vermont poet and author of Safe as Lightning

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“I found Granite Kingdom engrossing. Eric Pope has taken a real place and a real time and created a compelling story without distorting either the shape of the place or its historical reality. Would that all writers of historical fiction had his commitment to historical accuracy.”

—Elizabeth H. Dow, PhD, president of the Hardwick, VT Historical Society

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“Granite Kingdom is a page-turner about a one-stoplight bend in the road—a small Vermont village in 1910. From Main Street to side streets, the tale reverberates with labor strife, unfettered economic growth, exploitation of immigrants, racism, women’s suffrage, and conflict between agrarian and manufacturing societies.”

—Ross Connelly, former co-publisher of the Hardwick Gazette

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“Eric Pope’s historical novel captures an early 20th century drama as two granite tycoons battle over money and power. A small-town newspaperman turns out to be a surprising hero in this captivating tale.”

—Margot Roosevelt, Los Angeles Times

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“Pope’s novel grapples with several interconnected themes, all inspired by the author’s ownership of a local paper and its archive in small-town Vermont. This makes for a nuanced portrayal of a community that relies on a particular industry and what happens when the business faces a period of uncertainty… A lively and well-researched tale for fans of mysteries and American social history.”

—Kirkus Reviews

Reviews & In the News

Vermont History Journal, Vol. 91, No. 2 Summer/Fall, 2023: Book Review Eric Pope, Granite Kingdom by Bill Schubart

Seven Days, June 5, 2023: The Magnificent 7: Must See, Must Do, June 7-13 

The A Position, December 11, 2022: ROCKING AROUND THE BLOCKS

The Deerfield Valley News, December 8, 2022: One-Minute Book Reviews: A novel about Vermont’s granite industry

WCAX Channel 3 News, December 2, 2022: Vt. author explores granite industry of 1900s in new novel

The Chronicle, November 30, 2022: Rock-solid first novel from Eric Pope

Kirkus Reviews, October 28, 2022: A lively and well-researched tale for fans of mysteries and American social history.

Meet the Author