About the novel The Making of American Aura

American Aura has become elusive, amorphous, and mutable, in danger of extinction in our collective mind. But there was a time when American Aura defined our national consciousness. It offered clarity with conviction. A luminous emanation of endless possibilities, of invincibility, and of destiny.

The Making of American Aura tells the stories of an orphaned farm boy, Aura, and his childhood sweetheart, Celeste. They embark separately on their personal journeys, each remaking America.

The Making of American Aura also narrates the story of a nation—through the stories of Aura’s and Celeste's forebears who metamorphose a burgeoning democracy from an insular, agrarian society into a world power.

Many historians argue that the 20th Century was the American Century. A radiant period of growth, optimism, and creativity. And it was Chicago’s World Columbian Exposition—the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893—that formally proclaimed America’s unbridled belief in itself and its place in the world.

The Fair attracted over a quarter of all Americans to Chicago and its White City, the newly anointed American Mecca for those who believed in the founding ethos of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And that is where The Making of American Aura begins.