Thomas Dixon

The Man in Gray: A Novel of Robert E. Lee Thomas Dixon

Robert E. Lee, the Southern hero, is the gallant Man in Gray who moves through this gripping historical romance. The book opens before the war with a typical scene on the Lee plantation that shows the old South in its heyday. Uncle Tom's Cabin, just published, has cast a dark shadow across the nation and there is a tense undercurrent beneath the polished gaiety in the fine old house. The scene shifts to the North, where abolitionist activities are gaining swift headway. With amazing force Dixon shows John Brown ominously arousing the popular feeling. From this prelude of menacing war clouds, with dramatic episodes to depict the course of events of the broad panorama, is told the romantic and tragic gallantry of the South as seen in Robert E. Lee. Thomas Dixon earlier published The Clansman from which D. W. Griffith produced his film Birth of a Nation. "Now that my story is done I see that it is the strangest fiction that I have ever written. Because it is true. It actually happened. Every character in it is historic. I have not changed even a name. Every event took place. Therefore it is incredible. Yet I have in my possession the proof establishing each character and each event as set forth. They are true beyond question." -- Thomas Dixon