OZYMANDIA

About the Book

OZYMANDIA is true. It is down to earth American history, the story of three families of three entirely different cultures whose lives intertwine during the mid 1800’s in the heartland of America. Jacob’s crossed the Atlantic by choice, leaving behind a rich culture for a hawker’s promises in the new world. Tin Cup was a Cherokee, a man of wisdom and wealth. His family was uprooted from its ancestral home and sent west to Oklahoma by the United States Government in 1838. George escaped the African-American fate of slavery only to become a Cherokee servant. George was a pragmatist, not just a man of his time, but a man of the future who had a daughter “that jes would not lissen”. OZYMANDIA tells of Jacob, arriving at his homestead with a two man saw in his hand and fi nding trees ten feet thick, poisonous snakes as big around as his thigh and beasts waiting to eat him for dinner. The book tells in detail of the suffering and heartbreak of Tin Cup and his family and people during their long walk west during the winter of 1838-39.

One reads of George, a man anyone would like to have as a friend, who not only made life, but made life well worth living. These people, their old time religion, old time philosophers with their now time philosophy, along with a few hair brained individuals made our America of today. While young readers will enjoy OZYMANDIA as an adventure story, older readers may understand it as a parallelism, perhaps sharing the traveler’s observations as portrayed by Shelley in his poem, OZYMANDIAS.

About the Author

Ellie Stiller McClure is of immigrant descent. Her mother came from Ireland, a lady who simply paused here one day to visit relatives as she wended her way to New Zealand. Her father came from Germany, a pampered son who, as a lad of fourteen, hopped ship one day while visiting Hamburg and sailed away to see the world for the next seventeen years at which time his family stipend was ended. Ellie McClure was born in St. Louis and promptly named Elsie after a famous cow which belonged to a local dairy. Her mother’s laughter and her father’s stories made for a happy and informative home-life. Almost. There was little brother who strutted around proclaiming himself as Alexander “de gwate”. McClure is a graduate of USU, a retired teacher of mathematics, who worked for many years in the R&D division of the space industry. Today McClure lives in Montana with her husband Jack, a retired submariner, an offi cer of the United States Navy, who sailed the world, saw much, heard more, did much, but says very little.