Raising Liberty

The Statue of Liberty is not just an American icon, but also a universal symbol of freedom and a beacon of hope for refugees all over the world. Based on a true story, "Raising Liberty" is a work of historical fiction which narrates the compelling journey of sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi as he brought the statue from conception to reality over the course of more than two decades. Facing financial struggles, engineering challenges, and the death of key supporters, only Bartholdi's courage and determination allowed him to finish the project and make his dream of a colossal monument to liberty a reality in New York harbor. "Raising Liberty" is a faithful portrait of Bartholdi's persistence in the face of unrelenting obstacles.

As the story opens, young French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi is visiting Egypt in 1862. He finds himself inspired by the monumental statuary all around him, and he determines to try to convince the Egyptian leader to allow him to build a huge monument in his honor, which will help to cement Bartholdi's reputation at the same time. Unfortunately for Bartholdi, the Egyptians do not have the money to fund such a project.
A few years later in 1865 at a dinner in Paris, a few leading French thinkers propose the idea of creating a statue to honor the memory of the recently assassinated American hero Abraham Lincoln, as well as commemorate the Union victory in the American Civil War, the abolishment of slavery, and the historical bond of friendship between France and America. The proposal is to build a statue of liberty in Washington, D.C. Bartholdi, however, seizes on the idea as a chance to relaunch the monumental statue in Egypt, this time not as a personal tribute to its leader, but rather as a monument to Egyptian progress, building it as a lighthouse at the entrance to the under-construction Suez Canal. Once again, however, the Egyptians balk at the proposal.
Having been rejected twice in Egypt, Bartholdi at last determines to construct the monument in the USA. Even here, he faces a multitude of challenges with a lack of enthusiasm for the idea in a war-weary and Reconstruction-focused America, a lack of money for the project, his own design changes, and the need for a suitable support structure for the interior of such a massive statue.
Against the backdrop of Bartholdi's struggle to make the statue a success, he also must face his own personal demons for his behavior as a soldier in the French war with Germany, and the decision whether he should marry his bi-racial mistress with whom he has lived for years. Both internal struggles will haunt his conscience for decades to come. Based on the true story of Frederic August Bartholdi, "Raising Liberty" is a historical fiction novel that narrates the compelling journey of the artist who conceived and built the Statue of Liberty over the course of more than twenty years.