title: Calm Before the Storm
author: Ryan, Dan
description: Calm Before the storm describes in vivid detail what may have occurred in the United States under the Pierce and Buchanan Presidential administrations. The narration is by a middle-aged career naval officer, born in Beaufort, South Carolina, and serving in the Army Navy Building, Washington City. The historical events of 1855 through 1860 are carefully followed. The imagination of the author provides rich characters in powerful settings from the mountains of the Utah Territory to the port of South Hampton, England. The time old love story between a man and a woman is woven throughout the book when the naval officer falls in love with the President's sister, also a middle-aged woman referred to as the first, First Lady in the White House.