Carnival of Rainbows

About the Book

Carnival of Rainbows deals with a world´s fair that was eclipsed by a national tragedy--the assassination of the President of the United States. Its theme is electricity as a force for good or evil. The prologue to the novel takes place at New York´s Auburn Prison in the year 1890. On that day, the electric chair, invented by a dentist from Buffalo, New York, is put to its first test. Hailed as a humane, scientific advancement, it snuffs out the life of another Buffalonian named William Kemmler. Eleven years later, Buffalo is once again identified with electricity and scientific progress. The Pan-American Exposition is famed for its thousands of "Edison bulbs," which turn the fairgrounds into a fairyland of fire at night. Visitors are awestruck by the technology and the beauty. But as the world´s fair progresses, a serpent, in the form of a deranged young man, enters the electrical Eden and commits a dastardly crime. His act churns up ugly emotions and generates strident cries for vengeance. Thereafter, the shadow of the electric chair hangs over the Exposition like the stench of burning human flesh from the world´s first electrocution.

About the Author

Barbara Soper is a former librarian with an avid interest in history, world’s fairs, gardening, and stamp and postcard collecting. She writes a monthly column entitled “Stamps as History” for the Scott Stamp Monthly. She also contributes articles to Old News, a historical newspaper. Carnival of Rainbows is her first novel.