KENTUCKY PRIDE.

By Gene Markey '18.New York: Random House, 1956. 305 pp.$3-95-

A colorful addition to the books about the Civil War era is this one, by Gene Markey '18.

Readjustments in the South, after Lee's surrender, made life full of drama; and although Kentucky, never having left the Union, escaped Reconstruction and military rule, its people had been greatly divided, and those who had fought for the Confederacy were not forgiven as soon as they had expected.

Mr. Markey's hero, Aidan Kensal, went back to Lexington after four years in gray, to find trouble with those who had stayed loyal, with the law, with corrupt and evil army officers and businessmen seeking to take away the old plantation.

There are scenes of violence and passion, recollections of Morgan's cavalry and encounters with Quantrill's bandits — though Jesse James was not with them. There is a stirring horse race. There is a man hunt for Kensal through the mountains, which brings the story to a successful conclusion with the right girl, the horses, the plantation all won.

In all, this is a dramatic presentation of the year after Appomattox in Kentucky, written from the Confederate point of view, and making a book that many will enjoy reading, and many more will undoubtedly see in technicolor.