Fool's Errand, A

Fool's Errand, A, semi‐autobiographical novel by Albion W. Tourgée, published in 1879 with the signature, “By One of the Fools.” It was dramatized by Steele MacKaye (produced, 1881; published, 1969).

The “Fool,” Comfort Servosse, is a Union colonel during the Civil War, and afterward buys a plantation near Verdenton (Greensboro, N.C.), to which he brings his family. His actions as an influential Republican, and his sale of land to the blacks, whom he befriends, win him many enemies, including General Gurney, whose son Melville falls in love with Servosse's daughter Lily. He consistently fights both carpetbaggers and the Ku Klux Klan, and he advances a plan to abolish state boundaries in the South, so that it might be readmitted to the Union on a territorial basis. His life is endangered by an infuriated mob, but he is saved by a timely message from General Gurney, who thereby wins Lily's gratitude. When Melville proposes marriage, Servosse accepts for his daughter, but she refuses unless the general will agree. This makes the marriage impossible until years later, when Servosse is dying of a fever contracted during a trip to Central America, and Gurney, with the rest of the “Fool's” enemies, is reconciled with his sincere and honorable opponent.