It May Be Forever: An Irish Rebel on the American Frontier

By David M. Quinn

Book Overview

It May Be Forever is a nineteenth century tale of adventure and tragedy, based upon the real-life story of Michael Quinn. To escape the grinding poverty of Ireland's Great Famine, Michael and his... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1420880918
• ISBN13: 9781420880915
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Authorhouse
• Length: 392 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

From Famine to Frontier - A Splendid Irish Western

David M. Quinn's stirring story of his great, great uncle, Michael Quinn, is embedded in this historical novel. It's all here - adventure, mystery, politics, war, business, travel, failed romance and history. Additionally, its pulse is that of a bracing Western, replete with Indian wars, wagon trains, gun battles, cattle drives, dance-hall girls and mining camps. Michael Quinn's lifespan (1846-1934) had enough Irish immigrant drama for a dozen men. From the Great Famine through the Great Depression, his perils were many - the wretched workhouse in Roscommon, loathsome millwork in Massachusetts, soldiering in the Irish Republican Brotherhood's failed foray against the British in Canada, and tough times in the West. After the Fenian fiasco he moved throughout Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota and Colorado (spirited descriptions of 19th-century Denver are a treasure). A businessman with an unbeatable work ethic, he built a fortune with freighting enterprises and cattle ranches. The book left me reflective. Michael Quinn set out into the world alone, with naught but a steady confidence in the country's opportunities. Though not an unblemished choirboy, he possessed a straightforward integrity, an instinct for networking, and a can-do attitude. Early misfortune taught him fortitude, patience, planning and saving. There are no fanciful notions about a pious immigrant poverty here; worldly possessions saved the day for many on the frontier. Many descendants of famine forebears know little about the profound suffering of former generations. David M. Quinn plugs this deficit with the unstoppable perseverance of his ancestor marking out a singular path from poorhouse to prairie to prosperity. The perfect escape from a techo-weary world!

Peter Berresford Ellis

"The Irish Diaspora is a large historical canvas stretching over many centuries. Driven into exile ... the dispossessed Irish struggled for survival in their new lands. Each individual's struggle could merit a book in itself. It May Be Forever: An Irish Rebel on the American Frontier is one such story. It is the story of Michael Quinn who, aged eight, escapes from An Ghorta Mhór (The Great Hunger), the most devastating of the starvations inflicted on Ireland by an uncaring colonial landlord system in 1845-9. Although a true-life story, Michael's great-great-nephew, David Quinn, chooses to tell the story in novel form. It works brilliantly for David shows his dexterity as a storyteller is equally worthy of his subject. It's a book that should be listed among the great Irish diasporic accounts, told with skill and artistry by an author of whom I am sure we will hear more." Peter Berresford Ellis Noted Celtic scholar, writer, and novelist

Review by Mary Sojourner, Southwest Novelist

"Master storyteller, David Quinn, erases time. As I read It May Be Forever, I starved in the potato famine in Ireland-I breathed cotton lint in the mills of Lawrence-I sucked prairie dust on the bullwhacker trail-I looked deep into the heart of a sweat lodge fire. To transport the reader is the writer's job. Quinn does just that."