American literature mavens, help me out finding a book title, please.

[Rabrrrrrr]

I read a book when I was in high school in a literature class. It was set in America, either right before the Revolutionary War or after it. I think it was in Massachussetts, but maybe Connecticut.

The story was of a guy, a young professional, who comes into the town (whatever it is) and ends up buying the glass factory and falling in love with a girl child (who was maybe 12 when he first sees her). She loves him as well, but since she's so young, much waiting has to be done. It's during the waiting time that the guy works his way up to buying the glass factory, so that by the time the girl turns 16 and is able to marry, he's rich and can support her properly. The story continues for a while after their marriage, I think, but not much.

I can't remember the author, and I can't remember the title.

If you can figure it out from my description, please let me know. It's bugging the hell out of me that I can't remember the name.

[Sanity Claws]

1. Did he end up murdering her? Could it have been set in NY

in the 19th Century? I'm thinking it might be An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser.

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. No, definitely not that. No murder, and wrong time period.

Similar kind of story - I do now remember, I think, that the guy in the story comes to the town because of a relative who is there. Might have been that the relative owned the glass factory, but I can't remember that for sure.

[MonkeyFunk]

3. It's A Separate Peace

all high school literature is A Separate Peace.

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. I never read that one. But I do remember some fundy parents blowing a gasket

because we read "Kramer vs. Kramer" (which has that sinful, awful, masturbation scene) and later in a science-fiction class because we watched John Carpenter's The Thing (which has sinful, awful, swear words).

Funny that those fundy parents didn't seem bothered by Reagan's death squads, but that's just killing people - that's not masturbating or swearing.

[Sequoia]

10. The Thing was more scary to me, yes I'd be cussing too if a

head with 6 legs was chasing me. To me that is the #1 scariest movie ever.

[Westegg]

13. Let's burn "The Catcher In the Rye"! That'll fix everything!

[azmouse]

5. Have you tried a search on Bartleby.com?

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. their search engine is just Amazon's, and I've been playing around with it

but it really searches on book titles, not content descriptions.

[LynzM]

7. You could try posting it here:

http://community.livejournal.com/whatwasthatbook/

I've had good luck with that community finding books for me. If you don't have an LJ login, let me know, and I'll post it on your behalf and send you the link. :)

[Silver Swan]

8. In what year did you read this book?

Could it have been "The Glass Phoenix" by Mary Stetson Clarke?

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. It was probably 1983 that I read it, but I think it was written in the 1800s.

Definitely not the Glass Phoenix, but that's a good guess.

Thanks!

[Westegg]

11. It's "The John McCain Story"!

[Rabrrrrrr]

12. Well, it was late 1700s and the guy was just a young man, so that's about right.

:spray:

[peacefreak]

14. The only one I could think of is

"The Glass Blowers" by Daphne DuMaurier. It takes place during the French Revolution, not the American.

[Rabrrrrrr]

15. Sadly, that's not it.

x(

[WinkyDink]

16. "The Glass Phoenix"?