Higher Ground, the first novel of the Blair Morgan trilogy, was first published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1981 and remains in print. The trilogy examines small town life and social movements of the 1960's through the lens of Blair Ellen Morgan's coming-of-age. Blair Ellen attends the high school where her parents teach, and her adolescence is richly realized in the complexities of relationships begun when she was 11, with a family of hill-country people who were her aunt's neighbors. Blair is a delight of paradoxes in her quest for "my special friends who mean exactly what I want them to mean...." Higher Ground is heartwarming, funny and sad, quite delightful reading. Though the time, place, and personalities are specific, the thoughts and emotions are universal.