Böcker av Sallie Bingham

"A most unusual portrait of early America based on a rare family document, in which a young mother's years in captivity with the Shawnee prove to be the best years of her life. It's 1779 and a young white woman named Margaret Erskine is venturing west from Virginia, on horseback, with her baby daughter and the rest of her family. She has no experience of Indians, and has absorbed most of the prejudices of her time, but she is open-minded, hardy, and mentally strong, a trait common to most of her female descendants--Sallie Bingham's ancestors. Bingham had heard Margaret's story since she was a child but didn't see the fifteen pages Margaret had dictated to her nephew a generation after her captivity until they turned up in her mother's blue box after her death. Devoid of most details, this restrained account inspired Bingham to research and imagine and fill the gaps in her story and to consider the tough questions it raises. How did Margaret, our narrator, bear witnessing the murder of her infant? How did she survive her near death at the hands of the Shawnee after the murder of the chief? Whose father was her baby John's, born nine months after her taking? And why did her former friends in Union West Virginia turn against her when, ransomed after four years, she reluctantly returned? This is the seldom told story of the making of this country in the years of the Revolution, what it cost in lives and suffering, and how one woman among many not only survived extreme hardship, but flourished"--

A bold portrait of the defiant and notorious tobacco heiress who was perhaps the greatest modern woman philanthropist.

Cory is a middle-aged Easterner, long-divorced, energetic and fearlessly sensual. Pursuing a dream she has nursed for years, she moves to Taos, New Mexico and buys a famous old house and, in the tradition of its previous owner, turns it into a crucible for the transformation of her guests. Eccentric and charming, with a lover from the Pueblo and lots of turquoise and broomstick skirts, Cory finds her guests, mainly skiers and tourists, bewildered by her particular philosophy, which she calls "The School of As-If." Then her long-time friend is found murdered and Cory is suspicious of the local police''s half-hearted attempts to find the murderer. Involving herself in trying to solve the case, her unleashed power leads to surprising and even terrifying results. Part murder mystery, part adventure, this ground-breaking novel traces the mature lives of Cory and her much more conventional sister Apple, who first appeared in the author''s "Matron of Honor," described by Publishers Weekly as "A powerful novel, her best yet." Sallie Bingham''s first novel was published shortly after she graduated from Radcliffe, followed by five more novels and three collections of short stories celebrating the lives of women. This latest, "Cory''s Feast," continues to spotlight adventurous women whose challenges and choices illustrate the social changes of the twenty-first century. Her short stories and poetry have been widely published and her plays have been produced both off-Broadway and around the country. She has received fellowships from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center, and is the founder of The Kentucky Foundation for women.