Jefferson Davis: A memoir by his wife Varina Davis - Volume I (Paperback)

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What Varina Davis does best in this memoir is tell stories-anecdotes of her thirty-five years with Jefferson Davis. At such moments her work is reminiscent of of Mary Chestnut's famous diary, for like Mary Chestnut, Varina Howell Davis was a perceptive reporter. Though she had a few blind spots-her uncritical defense of her husband and her unquestioning belief in the benign nature of slavery are the most obvious-on the whole her narrative demonstrates great insight and sensitivity.

She quotes at length from the draft of the autobiography her husband was working on at the time of his death; she includes long passages from his previously published and somewhat turgid memoir; and she includes the entire text of several lengthy speeches as well as many of his personal and official letters.

Craig L. Symonds

1990, 6" x 9", paper, 699 pp.

ISBN: 9781877853036

111-S5303