November 27, 2020
The Legacy by S.F. Gilbert is a collection of effortlessly and profound interwoven stories, spanning one hundred years in the lives of the Morrells.
From the icy plains of wild Alaska in 1925 to the streets of 1990’s New York, this multigenerational tale is a sweeping epic which champions the love, courage and determination of an exceptional family.
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Philippe Morrell was dying. The blizzard had turned the world white. He could hear the dogs whining in their traces a few yards away. In the distance, muted and distorted by the raging wind, he heard another canine cry, far less friendly. The gray wolves, starved by a long winter, were moving in on him.
A strong love story of a prominent and important Canadian family.
The Legacy is a tribute to the men and dogs whose herculean efforts enabled them to traverse the desolate landscape in sub-zero conditions across the span of a little over five days.
This fascinating event is retold with a moving reverence and bold lyricism which masterfully invokes the breathless atmosphere of the Artic – The Legacy is the ultimate winter read of this year.
About the book
Pages: 444
ISBN: 9781684568901 (Hardcover)
Synopisis
The Legacy is several stories, intertwined and layered, that reveal more and plumb deeper than any one story could alone. It is set against the tableau of a heroic mush to save Nome during the great diphtheria epidemic of 1925. It is a story of Philippe Morrell and his lead dog, Balto, who made the run and the people, places and events that made his life stand out above those who had condemned him to the life of a social outcast.
It is also a story that spans one hundred years in the lives of the Morrells, a prominent Canadian family who built and controlled a powerful financial empire, but also of what they owed to the man who was their patriarch. Philippe faced the harsh elements and his own demons during a ragging blizzard in sub-zero temperatures, driving his dogs and himself with superhuman effort to deliver the diphtheria vaccine from Nenana to Nome across 650 miles of rough pack ice and frozen rivers. Near the end of a life filled with tragedy and triumph, at the extreme limit of human endurance where sanity and madness meet, on the verge of death itself, he finds redemption in himself.
The Legacy is both a sprawling adventure, a powerful love story and an intimate character study where past, present and future are inextricably joined. In the end, it reveals what beats in the heart of a great family.
Advance Review Copies of The Legacy and interviews with the author are available on request.
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Author Bio
S.F. Gilbert is a Professor Emeritus at the SI Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University. He is a member of the NRA Ring of Freedom and has served in the United States Marine Corps.
He travelled the globe as an international broadcasting consultant for CBS and NBC. Later, he became a consultant to ITN News in London and Fulbright Fellow to India, where he was on loan to the USIA as a consultant to the Indian television network.
He spent four decades in television and advertising as a broadcasting consultant and university professor.
He was also a member of Fulbright selection board for newspaper journalists applying for Fulbright grants to Spain. He was the only American on an all British and Australian international accreditation team selected by the British government for the final evaluation of the journalism and communications curriculum at one of the leading universities in Hong Kong before the school and crown colony was reverted back to mainland China.
Dr. Gilbert was awarded President Fellow from the American Graduate School of International Management and he was part of NBC’s management team that set up the Saudi Arabian Television Network. Dr. Gilbert and his wife reside in the Greater Washington, DC, Metropolitan Area. They have four children.
ENDS