Pen and Plow

This sequel to Land of the Eagle continues the saga of the dynamic Cleary family as it is joined by the pioneer newspaper family of a small California town. Millie Godfrey, daughter of the struggling country editor, and Spud Cleary, son the popular, wealthy rancher, fall in love and set in motion events that combine for an exciting, robust combination of pioneer journalism and ranch life. This is a novel that mixes the smell of printer's ink with the dust of a cattle drive. It covers forty years, taking members of the two families from the gold fields of the Yukon to the streets of San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake, from a battlefield in France to an influenza hospital of 1919, from the Irish civil war to the civic struggles of a pioneer town. Casey writes with the authenticity of a newspaper editor for 43 years and a horseman and cattleman whose own roots reach deeply into the town, the hills and valleys in which this story is set. Woven through the pages is the love story of Millie and Spud, suddenly challenged by powerful forces. As the feisty editor struggles to save his weekly newspaper and his editorial integrity, and as the fight for Irish freedom reaches all the way into a small California valley, the Cleary family is beset by a tragedy that serves as a catalyst to bring this novel to an unforgettable climax.