The Tempering

Boone Wellver, descendant of those straggling pioneer followers of Daniel Boone who failed to reach the Western Valleys, lived in the Kentucky Mountains where his forefathers had settled, barefoot, illiterate, loyal to the moral and ethical standards of a forgotten century, fired too with the old urge to push out past the frontiers of his narrow existence, to explore what lay beyond.How Boone "fared forth" to Louisville, marked the U. S. Senate as his goal, won it, surmounted class distinctions and gained the love of Anne Wallifero, an exquisite daughter of the old aristocracy, makes a story of charm and power. (Goodreads)