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Seven Stories Press

Works of Radical Imagination

Sergeant Lamb's America

An Historical Novel of the American War of Independence

by Robert Graves

Book cover for Sergeant Lamb's America
Book cover for Sergeant Lamb's America

The renowned poet, classicist, and novelist Robert Graves “recounts, in faithful and nicely atmospheric detail” the story of a British soldier during the American Revolution (The Philadelphia Inquirer).

Featuring a new introduction by Madison Smartt Bell.


A historical novel of the early years of the American Revolution based on the adventures of Sergeant Robert Lamb, a Dublin man, in the service of His Majesty’s Army. It begins with Lamb’s early days in Dublin and ends with his arrival in Boston as a member of the regiment taken prisoner after Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga.

The first in a two-book series, Sergeant Lamb's America is based on historical research, describing events and figures from the British perspective during the American War of Independence. Sergeant Lamb is engaging, personable, and exudes basic decency of character as he recounts the British defeat and the capture of his unit at the Battle of Saratoga in a voice that’s both funny, insightful, and wise.

“It is a historical novel for which one has a very real respect.” —The New York Times

Book cover for Sergeant Lamb's America
Book cover for Sergeant Lamb's America

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Robert Graves

Robert Graves (1895–1985) was a preeminent English poet, novelist, critic, translator, and scholar of classical mythology. He served in World War I—an experience recounted in his 1929 autobiography, Good-Bye to All That—and later became the first professor of English literature at the University of Cairo. Best remembered today for his acclaimed historical novels about the Roman emperor Claudius, I, Claudius and Claudius the God, his other books include Count Belisarius, Lawrence and the Arabs, They Hanged My Saintly Billy, Homer's Daughter, The Golden Fleece, The Siege and Fall of Troy, Ann at Highwood Hall, The White GoddessThe Hebrew Myths, and Collected Poems. He is also the co-author of The Reader Over Your Shoulder: A Handbook for Writers of English Prose. 

Other books by Robert Graves