- 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