Grey Blue Water

Grey-Blue Water traces the life of John Douglas Taylor, the son of a wealthy Southern gentleman, from his childhood on a Tennessee plantation, to his adventures in the newly-formed Republic of Texas, and later to his time as a riverboat captain on the Mississippi.

The shining thread running through Taylor’s life is the grey-blue water of the Old South, particularly its rivers, from the Cumberland to the Mississippi to the Brazos.

The grey-blue water is both an enemy and a friend to Taylor. It takes away a beloved brother and grandfather before he is old enough to understand the concept of death. It serves as an escape route from his rural childhood to a young adulthood filled with danger and adventure. It lures him to an eventful life aboard the picturesque steamboats that transport people and cargo from South to North and back again. The grey-blue water becomes his livelihood, but at times threatens to become his financial undoing.

Taylor and his family are eyewitnesses to major developments in the nation’s history, as new states are added and old traditions, including slavery, are done away with. They see the country torn apart by war, but then they witness the scars of war begin the healing process as their grief and bitterness are washed by the grey-blue water.

Author Daniel Mabrey Taylor has based his novel on true accounts taken from family letters, journals, and other historical documents. He has assembled a novel that reaches across time to draw readers into the often-turbulent Grey-Blue Water.