Standing at a table under a small tent during Chadds Ford
Days was Kennett Square author Gene Pisasale. He was talking with fair-goers
about his book Lafayette’s Gold: The Lost Brandywine Treasure.
The book is a work of fiction that weaves a factual timeline
from the War of Independence through the Civil War with a mythical lost
treasure. Pisasale said the idea came to him after he toured the Brandywine
Battlefield Park last year and heard about its possible closure.
“I was told that the park was about to close due to a lack
of funding. I was saddened by that, but I was inspired to write the book to
bring the story to a wider audience. It’s an historical novel about the Battle
of the Brandywine and it mentions a lot of the local historical sites around
the area including, of course, the battlefield, the Brandywine River Museum,
the Olde City tavern in Philadelphia, Independence Hall and many other
historical sites. But it weaves it into a modern mystery,” Pisasale said.
The mystery involves the Marquis de Lafayette and his
meeting with Gideon Gilpin in Chadds Ford just before the Sept. 11, 1777
battle. There is a fictional treasure, Lafayette’s gold, which the marquis left
for Gilpin as thanks for providing sustenance prior to the battle.
“There have been legends of some actual gold buried in the
Chadds Ford area, but again they’re all legends, stories that, to my knowledge,
have never been proven true. But this was a mystery that we wanted to weave
into the story and actually links three battles of three major wars of the
young republic,” Pisasale said.
Those three wars were the War of Independence, the War of
1812 and the Civil War.
“That’s how it brings [the story] into the present day,” he
said. “…The novel takes place during the present, but weaves in the history of
the Battle of the Brandywine, plus the character involved in that battle, up
through the Civil War.”
The book also involves some “hero cats” that help solve the
mystery, the author said.
Pisasale is a Wynnewood native who went to school in Texas
and California, now living in Kennett Square. He didn’t start out to be an
author, though. His working career
began as a petroleum geologist who then went into financial services. He said,
“I’ve always had a book in me.”
He’s been a history buff since he was young, he said, and
views writing as a gift and a pleasure.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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