Thomas Fleming's latest novel, The Wages of Fame, returns to a subject that has long fascinated this prolific writer: politics. Set in Washington D.C. before the Civil War, it portrays savage struggles for power in the American capital that make modern conflicts -- and scandals -- seem almost tame.
The Wages Of Fame continues a series about a powerful New Jersey family, the Stapletons, that Fleming has been writing for almost twenty years. Last October, Forge Books published Remember The Morning, about the family's beginnings before the American Revolution. The Library Journal called it "a marvelously fresh interpretation of an era." The novel is being published in paperback this fall. Forge plans to publish the entire series over the next several years. In 1997, Fleming capped his career as an historian with Liberty! The American Revolution. The book was a main selection of the History Book Club and the Book of the Month Club. The History Book Club named it one of the eight best books of 1997 and the American Revolution Round Table gave it their annual award as the best book of the year. Liberty! has sold over 150,000 copies. Fleming's novel, The Officers' Wives, the story of three women and the West Pointers they married in 1950 was also a main selection of the Book of the Month Club. He is the only writer in BOMC history to have had main selections in both fiction and nonfiction. Wives has sold 2,000,000 copies worldwide. The New York Times praised the "subtlety and intelligence" with which it "probed the heart of the American experience over the last thirty years." Hearst Television is planning to produce a mini-series based on the book and a sequel which Fleming is writing. Fleming's other novels include Time And Tide, about a troubled cruiser in the Pacific during World War II, which was also a New York Times best seller. The Cincinnati Post hailed it as "brilliant." The Chicago Sun-Times compared it to Melville's Moby Dick. Thomas Fleming is a Fellow of the Society of American Historians. He contributes regularly to American Heritage, and many other magazines. He has served as chairman of the American Revolution Round Table and as president of the American Center of P.E.N., the international writer's organization. He lives in New York with his wife, Alice, a distinguished writer of books for young readers.