About the Author:
ROBERT BOYD DELANO, born the seventh of nine children to Oklahoma Panhandle homesteaders, grew up during the devastating Dust Bowl days, then served courageously as a paratrooper with the 11th Airborne Division in historic WWII South Pacific battles (including Leyte, Luzon and Okinawa). In the post-War years, he attended Oklahoma State University, then earned a journalism degree from Oklahoma University and planned to become a foreign correspondent. This exceptional novel about Tom Bristow, birthed during that era, was set aside during decades of oil industry and business ownership success, along with the responsibilities of a growing family. As a result, for a half-century this amazing, timeless story gathered dust on a shelf. Only through encouragement of family and friends did The Happy Immortals finally make the memorable transformation from faded manuscript to printed book for people of all generations to read and enjoy. Ironically, now in his eighties and retired from the corporate world, Robert is now being hailed by critics and readers alike as an up-and-coming "new" novelist!
Review:
The Happy Immortals reaches out of the 1940s and pulls the reader into that decade's landscape, language, values and visual details, courtesy of a writer who saw it all and remembered it vividly. We can be grateful Robert Delano persisted to pen this novel. --Ann DeFrange (The Oklahoman)
What a terrific book that is certain to take the marketplace by storm and find a lasting audience of readers! Robert Boyd Delano s writing style is reminiscent of the literary genius, the late Eugenia Price. Like colorful threads, each plot and subplot throughout this masterful book has been woven together into fine tapestry. On page after page, the unique Post-World War II background and the characters spring to life, readily identifiable. It is an immensely and intensely enjoyable book. --Jimmy and Roxanne Clanton (Fifties Rock and Roll Star; MyBestYears.com HARDCORE HEALTH eColumnists)
I literally couldn t put the book down! As a young man driving a tractor on the Sledge Place that became part of our own farm, I often wondered about the family by that name and whatever happened to the young people who used to live there when they were my age? Imagine my delight, nearly a half-century later, to pick up an historical novel, The Happy Immortals, written by Robert Boyd Delano, a grandson of the Sledges who homesteaded that same farmland. R.B. had also grown up on a nearby farm. In fact, I discovered that Bob, as he is known to friends, actually lived with my great-grandparents for a couple of years during the late-1930s, so he could attend Guymon High School . It s definitely a small world, isn t it? Though I began reading this page-turner while in the nation s capital, I was instantly transported back to my homeland. This poignant Tom Bristow love story is a nostalgic flashback of growing up on an Oklahoma Panhandle wheat farm near Guymon, and I identified so much with the scenes R. B. described and the story he told. The values and experiences of this hard-working, tough-love father and his pressured son are intertwined with Tom s struggles to find true love and happiness. Tom s pursuit of a forbidden love and his stubborn medical career choice shatter Benjamin Bristow s dreams for him and add a deeper dimension to this story. --Dr. Larry Quinn (Career Communicator; Washington, DC)
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