This fascinating collection of intimate letters from and to Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) illuminates the character and personality of the President of the Confederacy. These letters (the majority appearing fully in print for the first time) range widely over one of the most turbulent periods in American history, from his fifteenth year to his death at eighty-one. Here is Jefferson Davis in all aspects: in love and in house slippers; as wounded war hero; at dramatic heights of statesmanship; in grief over four dead sons; refusing Lee's resignation after Gettysburg and expressing unwavering...

"Every place I visited," says Hudson Strode, "was like a surprise package to be opened, and I untied the strings with high expectations." Reading The Eleventh House: Memoirs is like going to a party of smartly dressed guests.

Strode starts his foreign travels in Sorrento with Dante's descendant Count Dante Serego-Alighieri as his guide. He takes a Russian cattle boat to Tunisia and lunches with the lovely Countess de Brazza. Then he embarks on a whirlwind tour of South America and writes South by Thunderbird. Later, in England, he visits Rebecca West at her country home and...