List of Illustrations

Introduction

1. Half Breed

2. This Mr. Davis

3. Flattered and Courted

4. First Lady

5. No Matter What Danger There Was

6. Holocausts of Herself

7. Run with the Rest

8. Threadbare Great Folks

9. Topic of the Day

10. Crowd of Sorrows

11. Fascinating Failures

12. The Girdled Tree

13. Delectable City

14. Like Martha

15. At Peace

Notes

A Note on Sources

Acknowledgments

Index

Illustrations

Varina Howell, 1840s

Mr. and Mrs. Davis, 1845

Joseph E. Davis

Zachary Taylor

Franklin Pierce

Jefferson Davis, 1850s

Minna Blair

Harriet Lane Johnston

Winfield Scott

Varina Howell Davis, circa 1860

Confederate White House, 1865

The Davis children, 1860s

Ellen Barnes and the infant Winnie Davis

Varina Davis and her daughter Winnie

John W. Garrett

Margaret Howell

Jefferson and Varina Davis, 1867

Virginia Clay

Court Street, the Davis home in Memphis

Sarah Dorsey

Beauvoir

Oscar Wilde

Jefferson Davis in old age

Joseph Pulitzer

Julia Grant

Winnie Davis

Four generations of Davis women, 1905

Varina Davis, the pensive widow