“Great novelists can reveal more about the past than the best historian. We in the profession don’t like to admit this, but writers can provide a sense of place, time, tension, sight and sound that those of us bound by the convention of footnotes cannot achieve. Michael Miller is such a writer and High Bridge a book that brings to life late-nineteenth-century America’s politics of sex, race, money, and power. A most enjoyable and useful read indeed!”
     Jeffrey A. Engel, PhD, Director, Center for Presidential History, Southern Methodist University

   “High Bridge by Michael Miller is a brilliantly crafted novel that blends true history and fiction to tell a story of two American icons. Miller utilizes the actual history that Grover Cleveland and Matilda Joslyn Gage both lived in the Fayetteville, N.Y. area at the same time in the mid-19th century. With no existing historical proof available on how much a young Grover Cleveland may have known or interacted with Mrs. Gage during this time, Miller fills in the gaps with compelling fiction. He tells a wonderful story of what might have been, truly capturing the essence that history knows both Cleveland and Gage to be; honest, fair, and defenders of human rights. As a historian and a native of the Fayetteville-Manlius area, I can attest to Miller’s impeccable research in writing this fascinating novel.”
   Laurence L. Cook, Presidential Historian and author of Presidential Coincidences, Amazing Facts and Collectibles and Symbols of Patriotism: First Ladies and Daughters of the American Revolution

   “A highly-engaging and thought-provoking journey into what might have resulted if suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage and future president Grover Cleveland, who lived in the upstate village of Fayetteville at different times, had instead known each other and become friends. By endowing them with a 21st century social justice consciousness, the author skillfully invites us to consider the issues they faced, which we still do today.” 
    Sally Roesch Wagner, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation and Museum, and author of “The Women’s Suffrage Movement” and other books

   “It was so exciting to see history come to life in Miller’s High Bridge: Matilda and Grover Battle Learned Ignorance. The Fayetteville village scenes were so vivid, compelling me to read on, considering the fictional relationship between the Cleveland and Gage families. This book recreates important moments in Central New York history that need remembering. I can’t wait to recommend this book to fellow readers.”  
    Maija McLaughlin, Local History and Special Collections Librarian, Fayetteville Free Library

   “Michael Miller’s High Bridge is a cleverly written historical novel that imagines the suffragette, abolitionist, and free-thinker Matilda Gage befriending a young Grover Cleveland in the New York town where both lived. Set in the late 1840s, the story sets the stage for the type of president Cleveland would become. It’s well researched and a delight to read.”
    Carter Taylor Seaton, author of The Other Morgans and other novels

   “A moving and inspirational novel, beautifully rendered, with evocative themes and fascinating characters. Author Michael Miller’s depiction of nineteenth century Upstate New York leaps off the page with vibrant images, pitch-perfect language, and nuances of customs and behaviors. The book’s themes are particularly relevant – the nascent perspectives of nineteenth century progressives with respect to inclusivity and equality, which the book so vividly portrays, are still unrealized—and are in fact currently under attack in our nation.”
    Robert Steven Goldstein, author of Will’s Surreal Period and other novels

   “As far as records show, activist and author Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826-1898) and President Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) met only once during their lifetimes.  However, in High Bridge, Michael Miller reimagines with a certain verve the intertwined lives of these two nineteenth-century historical figures, who have largely receded from popular historical memory, but to whom we should be reintroduced.  Gage was one of the era’s leading feminist and abolitionist activist, as well as an early and staunch supporter of Native American rights.  Grover Cleveland, the first Democrat to be elected to the presidency after the Civil War and the only one to serve two non-consecutive terms, is known for strengthening the power of the executive branch.  In this fascinating novel Miller traces both of their paths to activism from early hardships and years of political apprenticeship at local and state levels.  It is an engaging novel, well worth taking the time to read and, trust me, it will make you pick up another history book to get reacquainted with this period.”
    Sharon Halevi, Ph.D., past Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and Chair of the Department of Multidisciplinary Studies, University of Haifa, Haifa IS

   “High Bridge by Michael Miller is an intriguing and informative read that illuminates the role of Grover Cleveland and Matilda Joslyn Gage, an early feminist and suffragist. The story unfolds in the almost forgotten heyday of upstate New York when it was the hot bed of commerce with the Erie Canal as the economic engine and the political cauldron of women’s rights. Heady stuff that is not necessarily evident in the contemporary landscape.
   “Miller does an admirable job of tying together bits and pieces of history to weave together an exciting and often heart wrenching story that moves easily from fact to fiction and back again. His research is top notch and serves him well as he brings to life a time and circumstance that are easily forgotten. The book is also prescient as so many of the issues he writes about are with us today. It serves as a way of looking back at the past to see how it might serve as aids to navigate our course forward.”
   Bird Stasz Jones, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, Elon University, co-author of Blue-eyed Slave and Hold Fast

   “In High Bridge, Michael Miller does what the historian must do: He convincingly transports us back to a time and a place, and introduces us to compelling characters whom we want to know better. With a light but precise touch, Miller imagines a youthful friendship between Grover Cleveland and human rights advocate Matilda Joslyn Gage.
  “In High Bridge, you crouch in fear that an Underground Railroad rendezvous might go wrong; you can hear the noise from the docks along the Erie Canal; you tense up when Gage represents a Black man wrongly accused; and you marvel that the impish Cleveland boy somehow became the solid two-time President. The imagined Cleveland-Gage relationship, in which the activist is the mentor and the future President is the protegé, is the glue that holds the book together. High Bridge is a great history lesson, a great metaphor for the times we live in, and a great read.”
   James D. Nealon, author of Confederacy of Fenians

   “Michael Miller has a kind of time machine. His new novel, High Bridge, transports the reader into the compelling lives of Matilda Joslyn Gage, future President Grover Cleveland, and others through a series of momentous events and developments in the tumultuous mid to late 1800’s in the United States. In his hands, it all remains accessible, proximate, and keenly relevant to matters we still struggle with in our culture today. Miller has masterfully done his part in carrying out his own book’s theme — that we must, each one of us, relentlessly pursue equality and opportunity for all with both creativity and energy if our future is to be better than our past. High Bridge is immersive and terrific.”
   Greg Funderburk, author of The Mourning Wave

   “High Bridge is a wonderful story. It brings the past alive and conveys a great sense of place. Miller’s research pays off with lots of fine historical details. Matilda Joslyn Gage, a little-known figure from the women’s movement of that era, clearly deserves to be rescued from obscurity.”
    Eileen Heyes, author of O’Dwyer and Grady Starring in Acting Innocent and other books