The Conquerer by Gertrude Atherton is a novel following the true and romantic story of Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton was a Nevisian-born American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795. Excerpt: "It was my original intention to write a biography of Alexander Hamilton more flexibly than is customary with that method of reintroducing the dead to the living, but without impinging upon the territory of fiction. But after a visit to the British and Danish West Indies in search of the truth regarding his birth and ancestry, and after a wider acquaintance with the generally romantic character of his life, to say nothing of the personality of this most endearing and extraordinary of all our public men, the instinct of the novelist proved too strong; I no sooner had a pen in hand than I found myself working in the familiar medium, although preserving the historical sequence."