Description
America has an array of women writers who have made history–and many of them lived, died and were buried in Virginia. Gothic novelists, writers of westerns and African American poets, these writers include a Pulitzer Prize winner, the first woman writer to be named poet laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the first woman to top the bestseller lists in the twentieth century. Mary Roberts Rinehart was a best-selling mystery author often called the American Agatha Christie. Anne Spencer was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance. V.C. Andrews was so popular that when she died, a court ruled that her name was taxable, and the poetry of Susan Archer Talley Weiss received praise from Edgar Allan Poe. Professor and cemetery history enthusiast Sharon Pajka has written a guide to their accomplishments in life and to their final resting places.
One local female author celebrated in this book is Judith Brockenbrough McGuire. When the Civil War began looming on the horizon, Judith McGuire (1813-1897) was the wealthy wife of a prominent citizen in Alexandria, and like many on both sides of the conflict, she believed in a speedy and perhaps even non-violent end to the conflict. In the days leading up to the war, McGuire recorded in her diary the increasingly depressing landscape of Alexandria. She and several other authors recorded the histories of life during the Civil War in the south. Others were best known for their writings in support of women’s rights.
- Paperback: 258 pages
- Publisher: The History Press (2021)
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