This historical novel envisions the invention of America's first gasoline automobile. One of ten children and eventually the son of a successful post-Civil War manufacturer, John William Lambert was well situated to explore his love of engines and his dream of a self-propelled car. Based on facts from a hand-written family tree and other family materials, combined with research about the man and the era, this story tells of America's Industrial Revolution through the life of one its most prodigious inventors.



The author is the great-granddaughter of the inventor of America's first gasoline automobile. As a psychotherapist, Carol wanted to know John Lambert as a person and so traveled to Ohio, Michigan and Indiana to visit libraries, interview those who knew or studied him and go through boxes of John's business and family material. She contacted car museums, automotive history libraries and countless websites.