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