248 pages
21 photographs, 1 genealogy
Heath Hardage Lee is an independent historian, biographer, and curator. She is the author of The League of Wives: The Untold Story of the Women Who Took on the U.S. Government to Bring Their Husbands Home.
“Can there be any major Civil War story that we haven’t heard? The answer is, yes! Here comes Heath Lee with the fascinating—and surprising—life of Varina Anne ‘Winnie’ Davis. . . . Clear, strong writing brings the history, mores, and manners of the day brilliantly to life.”—Lee Smith, author of Guests on Earth and Fair and Tender Ladies
“Heath Lee has written a beautiful and thoughtful biography of Winnie Davis. . . . This is, in a sense, a biography of America in the aftermath of a civil war as much as it is a captivating story of a young woman who struggled to preserve her individuality when others elevated her to an icon.”—Carol Berkin, author of Civil War Wives and Wondrous Beauty
“Heath Lee tells this tale with simple elegance and matter-of-fact sensitivity. She makes you understand that neither of Winnie Davis’s two worlds—the languor of the Mississippi Gulf Coast or the hustle of downtown New York—would ever bring her peace.”—Guy Gugliotta, author of Freedom’s Cap: The United States Capitol and the Coming of the Civil War
Foreword 000
by J.E.B. Stuart IV
Preface 000
Acknowledgments 000
Introduction 000
1. A Tragic Fall 000
2. My Name Is a Heritage of Woe 000
3. Escape, Capture, and Fort Monroe 000
4. A Fatal Romance 000
5. Scandal and Sickness 000
6. Boarding School Blues and the Dorsey Dilemma 000
7. Yellow Fever 000
8. Portrait of a Lady 000
9. Daughter of the Confederacy 000
10. Life in a Fishbowl 000
11. I Will Never Consent! 000
12. Engagement Issues 000
13. Italian Idyll 000
14. Dear Diary 000
15. A World on Fire 000
16. Queen of a Mystic Court 000
17. New York, New Woman 000
18. The Last Casualty of the Lost Cause 000
19. Death and Maiden 000
Epilogue: The Great-Great-Grandson of the Confederacy and the Daughter of New York 000
coauthored by Bertram Hayes-Davis
Notes 000
Bibliography 000
