"Historical fiction as written by Philip Van Doren Stern is much more than a literary exercise tinctured with the dramatic past. It is the historical record cast in excellent prose style in order to recreate in as lifelike manner as possible the long-ago. Historians, no doubt, will remember the author of The Drums of Morning as the individual who published The Man Who Killed Lincoln and The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln. Stern's interest in...