In the spring of 1864, the Confederate Army in Georgia is faced with the onrushing storm of General William T. Sherman's troops. A young sharpshooter for the South, Charlie Merrill, who has suffered many losses in his life already, must find a way to endure - and grow - if he is to survive the battles that will culminate in July at the gates of Atlanta. A Distant Flame is a historical novel about the cost of war and the running conflict that led Sherman's army to the Battle of Atlanta - and the March to the Sea.

Never before has the Atlanta campaign been rendered - in all its swift and terrible action - with such attention to history or with writing that reaches the level of art. The book stands as a testament to love, dedication, and growth, from the Civil War's fields of fire to the slow steps of old age.

A Distant Flame won the Michael Shaara Prize as the best Civil War novel published in the United States during 2004. E.L. Doctorow won the award the following year. Williams received the award in ceremonies at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston.

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

 

Philip Lee Williams’s latest book is the massive novel The Divine Comics: A Vaudeville Show in Three Acts, published in late 2011. His new novel, Emerson’s Brother, will be published in late spring 2012.

In 2011, the University of Georgia Press published a new edition of Williams's award-winning Civil War novel, A Distant Flame. This novel originally published by St. Martin's in 2004, was winner of the Michael Shaara Prize, given to the best single Civil War novel published in the United States the previous year.

Williams’s much-praised book-length poem, The Flower Seeker: An Epic Poem of William Bartram, came out in the fall of 2010. It was named Book of the Year by the national literary journal Books and Culture and won Williams his fourth Georgia Author of the Year Award.

All of Williams’s books are for sale at numerous online outlets and at many bookstores around the world. In addition, his works are in hundreds of libraries around the globe.

Symphony No. 17: Tenebrae

This symphony is subtitled "Tenebrae," which is a religious service in the Christian church but literally means "shadows" or "darkness" in Latin. It is a quiet, contemplative symphony, a single movement for full orchestra. (29'48")

Symphony No. 18: For the Civil Rights Martyrs

This work is subtitled "For the Civil Rights Martyrs" and is in memory of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, murdered in Mississippi in the summer of 1964 while working for Civil Rights. It is also in memory of all who died in the struggle. It is in two movements, "The Lynching" and "Souls."

One: The Lynching (15'25")

Two: Souls (14'25")