Set in the mid-19th Century in the Congress Kingdom which is now central Poland, HERITAGE, VOLUME 1: THE FLAME OF FREEDOM follows the members of the Marjzendiak family through the tumultuous years of Eastern Europe's domination by Russia. The family, headed by their father Ephraim, struggles to live an exemplary Jewish life in a time when Jews were granted few rights and essentially no social status, victims of the restrictive rules, forced conscription and dire Russification policies of Alexander II. The essential message of the story is embodied in the friendship and loyalty that exists between the Marjzendiak family and the Polish Catholic Pietrowski family, and through their interactions Poland's history is reflected, her struggle to regain her place as a nation even as the Jews of Eastern and Western Europe strive to reestablish a viable Jewish homeland. THE FLAME OF FREEDOM is the first of four volumes of HERITAGE, which all together cover six generations of this remarkable family, spanning the time frame from 1861 to 1986.
About the Author: Adrienne Ramsey-Harris is the non-de-plum of a mature woman who has, in the course of her long life, pursued a remarkable variety of careers and activities, including an ongoing involvement in laboratory medicine. She is still in practice, and for this reason has chosen to practice medicine under one name and write historical fiction under another. In the past she has designed, executed and exhibited award-winning garden landscapes and floral exhibits at county fairs and in local and regional competitions. She has also performed oriental dances in stage presentations and at parties given by her friends. Furthermore, she has been an active member of her church choir for several decades. Though Heritage, Volume 1: The Flame of Freedom is her first published novel, in her college days she wrote and sold two scripts to television shows, including Westinghouse's "Studio One." She wrote two novels prior to that, one a historical resetting of the Romeo and Juliet story in the days of The War of the Roses, the other a gothic novel. She wrote essays and composed poetry for secondary school and college newspapers. And for the American Cancer Society, she wrote an illustrated article on the pathophysiology of smoking. Her current project, however, stems from a different compulsion and a different inspiration that any other endeavor that has previously engaged her energy and her attention. A devout convert to the Roman Catholic faith, because as she states, "if Christ founded a church as the New Testament offers, the only Christian church from the first century A.D. is the Catholic Church," she is also an avid activist for religious tolerance. She actively endorses ethnic interaction and understanding, and was strongly in favor of Pope John Paul's dialogues with the Eastern Orthodox clergy and the Jewish Rabbinate. Her ideas on these subjects crystallized when she met and fell in love with a young Jewish musician to whom she subsequently became engaged. She had not, at that time, espoused the Catholic faith. Unfortunately, death intervened and the wedding beneath the canopy never took place. However, the quest to know and to understand the Jewish faith, Jewish history and the Jewish experience was unending. The Heritage Chronicles, detailing the history of one Jewish family who are in reality a composite of four families, including that of her fiancé, are the tangible results of that quest.