In the Shadow of the Dam: BERTHA 'VAN' EDWARDS NORTH with Bill Seymour
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Prepare to be seduced by a world where forbidden trysts smolder in moonlit barns and whispered secrets echo beneath a reservoir In The Shadow of The Dam, recently published by Ebook Bakery Books and author Bill Seymour.
It is a legacy novel Seymour published honoring his grandmother, who 60 years ago used New York City's oppression of small upstate rural villages, including Downsville, N.Y., to reveal the raw, rugged, romantic and raucous lifestyles and many of those lives disturbed by NYC's quest to take land at any cost.
The book was so revelatory that publishers in the early 1960s refused to print it, fearing prosecution like Penguin Books saw for LadyChatterley'sLover.
Journalist and writer Seymour said publishing her book was his "last fierce act of Love" for grandmother Bertha "Van" Edwards North, called "Nanny," who died 25 years ago. It's an effort any grandmother would admire and for having their work published.
Her untold tale written in bold prose is about romance, lost traditions, and tragedy wrapped around the true story of Big New York City invading for decades and changing lives in pursuit of water in hamlets and villages over 100 miles away. Downsville, N.Y., the setting for her 1940s fictional "Gainsville," could also be today any hamlet, village, town or city across America in the grips of government overpowering them.
Step into a scandal-soaked story about a real village whose factual history blurs with fiction, where virtue is negotiable, whiskey flows like water, and secrets linger just below the surface of the rocks being blown apart to build Pepacton Reservoir and dam at Downsville. In The Shadow of The Dam is a searing, seductive historical-fiction-memoir novel brimming with forbidden affairs, betrayal, and backwoods vice in a Catskills.
It fuses the raw intrigue of 1956's Peyton Place with the sumptuous scandal of today's Netflix's Bridgerton and Sex/Life. Dive into covert affairs, simmering gossip, and hypocrisy that binds every small town-where love, power, and survival collide in a daring tale.
There's sultry Maggie Tiffany, who rents rooms and sells comfort with the same hand, and Trooper Jim Hadden, who polices the town by day and seduces its daughters by night. When seventeen-year-old Polly Howe finds herself drawn into his uniformed arms, the lines between law and lust blur in the moonlight. Meanwhile, the town's high school girls learn too early what grown men want-and just how little protection their reputations offer.
At its heart, the novel is a tapestry of women who navigate love, loss, and lechery with grit, wit, and survival instinct. Becky Hawk, a farmer's daughter aching for escape and dignity, finds herself battling class snobbery, male predation, and family secrets-including her mother's shame-swaddled pregnancy.
The main character, she fights small town conformity, confronts tragedy, and seeks out real love, all the while pursuing a nursing career small-town Gainsville could never offer.
***
I've published books in every genre, from the corporate to the poetic, history and fiction, yet In the Shadow of the Dam isn't easily categorized. It's a captivating work of steamy fiction, civil disruption and greed written by an author who was edgy for her day. Yet the book has a second dimension. It's is also a legacy, published not by author Bertha 'Van' Edwards North, but for the author by her grandson, Bill Seymour.
Years following 'Van's' passing, as an act of tender affection, Bill resurrected the manuscript, assembled its elements, and brought it to fruition. This book is an example of giving thanks to the special individuals each of us has had in our lives, gentle mentors who helped us discover our passions and come to a better place. -- I. Michael Grossman, publisher, EBoo
It is a legacy novel Seymour published honoring his grandmother, who 60 years ago used New York City's oppression of small upstate rural villages, including Downsville, N.Y., to reveal the raw, rugged, romantic and raucous lifestyles and many of those lives disturbed by NYC's quest to take land at any cost.
The book was so revelatory that publishers in the early 1960s refused to print it, fearing prosecution like Penguin Books saw for LadyChatterley'sLover.
Journalist and writer Seymour said publishing her book was his "last fierce act of Love" for grandmother Bertha "Van" Edwards North, called "Nanny," who died 25 years ago. It's an effort any grandmother would admire and for having their work published.
Her untold tale written in bold prose is about romance, lost traditions, and tragedy wrapped around the true story of Big New York City invading for decades and changing lives in pursuit of water in hamlets and villages over 100 miles away. Downsville, N.Y., the setting for her 1940s fictional "Gainsville," could also be today any hamlet, village, town or city across America in the grips of government overpowering them.
Step into a scandal-soaked story about a real village whose factual history blurs with fiction, where virtue is negotiable, whiskey flows like water, and secrets linger just below the surface of the rocks being blown apart to build Pepacton Reservoir and dam at Downsville. In The Shadow of The Dam is a searing, seductive historical-fiction-memoir novel brimming with forbidden affairs, betrayal, and backwoods vice in a Catskills.
It fuses the raw intrigue of 1956's Peyton Place with the sumptuous scandal of today's Netflix's Bridgerton and Sex/Life. Dive into covert affairs, simmering gossip, and hypocrisy that binds every small town-where love, power, and survival collide in a daring tale.
There's sultry Maggie Tiffany, who rents rooms and sells comfort with the same hand, and Trooper Jim Hadden, who polices the town by day and seduces its daughters by night. When seventeen-year-old Polly Howe finds herself drawn into his uniformed arms, the lines between law and lust blur in the moonlight. Meanwhile, the town's high school girls learn too early what grown men want-and just how little protection their reputations offer.
At its heart, the novel is a tapestry of women who navigate love, loss, and lechery with grit, wit, and survival instinct. Becky Hawk, a farmer's daughter aching for escape and dignity, finds herself battling class snobbery, male predation, and family secrets-including her mother's shame-swaddled pregnancy.
The main character, she fights small town conformity, confronts tragedy, and seeks out real love, all the while pursuing a nursing career small-town Gainsville could never offer.
***
I've published books in every genre, from the corporate to the poetic, history and fiction, yet In the Shadow of the Dam isn't easily categorized. It's a captivating work of steamy fiction, civil disruption and greed written by an author who was edgy for her day. Yet the book has a second dimension. It's is also a legacy, published not by author Bertha 'Van' Edwards North, but for the author by her grandson, Bill Seymour.
Years following 'Van's' passing, as an act of tender affection, Bill resurrected the manuscript, assembled its elements, and brought it to fruition. This book is an example of giving thanks to the special individuals each of us has had in our lives, gentle mentors who helped us discover our passions and come to a better place. -- I. Michael Grossman, publisher, EBoo
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:1953080596
ISBN13:9781953080592
Release Date:June 2025
Publisher:eBook Bakery
Length:198 Pages
Weight:0.60 lbs.
Dimensions:0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"
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