- By Sue deGuzman
- Posted Monday, December 8, 2025
The Lewisville Historical Society Presents ... Ancestry and Imagination with author Douglas Shouse
Delve back to the eras of the Civil War, Reconstruction and The Great War in Europe with two tales by local author Douglas Shouse at the next meeting of the Lewisville Historical Society on Monday, Jan. 12 at 6 p.m. at the Mary Alice Warren Community Center.
Shouse will share the personal backstories and core storylines of the historical fiction novels from his Southern Warrior series:
American Janus: a Novel of the South and its Reckoning with the Civil War and Reconstruction (2023) and
American Achilles: a Novel of the South and the Great War (2025).
American Janus is set in Winston and Bethania, North Carolina as well as various Civil War battlefields. The story of the Clayton family begins at Christmas 1899, and "Harper Clayton is looking forward to the new century," said Shouse, "but [he] can't escape his past in the Civil War and as a Freedmen's Bureau agent..."
American Achilles advances a new generation of the Clayton family story to 1917-18.
American Achilles is also dually set, again in the 'new' city of Winston-Salem (est. 1913) and on the Western Front in Europe during WW I.
"Both stories are essentially that of family," said Shouse, "specifically its resilience and unbreakable bond in the face of severe trials and corruption." See the library's current newsletter,
Close to Home: North Carolina, which highlights
American Achilles.
Copies of
American Janus and
American Achilles will be available for purchase following the presentation, which Shouse will be happy to sign.
Lewisville Historical Society Presents ... is a bimonthly program of the Lewisville Historical Society and the Lewisville Branch Library. It is free and open to the public. Participants do not need to be members of the society to attend.
The society will hold a short business meeting before the featured program. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, contact the Lewisville Branch Library at 336-703-2940 or the Lewisville Historical Society at 336-766-5842.
Lewisville Historical Society Presents ... Ancestry and Imagination: The Origin Stories of American Janus and American Achilles
Monday, Jan. 12 at 6 p.m.
Mary Alice Warren Community Center
7632 Warren Park Drive, Lewisville, NC 27023
