When it was published, and until the publication of Gone with the Wind, this novel -- by a McGehee cousin and featuring numerous McGehees as characters -- was regarded as the best Civil War novel ever.

It was made into a movie in 1935 starring Margaret Sullavan and Walter Connolly. Only one McGehee seems to have made the cut in the film: George, played by Charles Starrett.

Other Titles by Stark Young
Pavilion: People and Times Remembered
Addio Madretta and Other Plays

"A little river hiding itself among the hills," as Thomas Jefferson saw it from Monticello, the Rivanna flows along the base of Jefferson's "little mountain" on its way from the Blue Ridge to the James. What it may lack in length, volume, or majesty, the Rivanna makes up in its historic relationship to Jefferson, its vital role in the development of central Virginia, and its growing importance as nature's lifeline through one of North America's most beautiful regions. Mr. Jefferson's River, an authoritative history, tells the Rivanna's story from the earliest colonial commerce in dugout canoes, to the unique Virginia invention of the watercraft called "batteaux"-and the building of locks and dams-to the height of canal-building. The book relates the events it describes to fascinating ruins that can still be found along the Rivanna today, as told by authors who have walked and canoed the river's every mile. Part history and part survey, the book includes more than 100 full-color photographs. For the Virginian or the visitor who wishes to explore the first of the commonwealth's Scenic Rivers, and the first river to be named an American Treasure, Mr. Jefferson's River offers a truly comprehensive account.

--Amazon.com description

My own McGehee line runs through Jefferson's home environs of Albemarle County; my five-times-great grandfather bought property adjacent to the Shadwell plantation where Jefferson had been born some 14 years earlier, and McGehees turn up in Jefferson's records -- one did roofing work on Monticello and another was an overseer on one of Jefferson's farms.

News of this book's existence comes from Overton McGehee of Palmyra, Virginia, who is Minnie Lee McGehee's son. I thank him for the information, and I enjoyed the book very much.