Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All

Allan Gurganus'sOldest Living Confederate Widow Tells Allbecame an instant classic upon its publication. Critics and readers alike fell in love with the voice of ninety-nine-year-old Lucy Marsden, one of the most entertaining and loquacious heoines in American literature. Lucy married at the turn of the last century, when she was fifteen and her husband was fifty. If Colonel William Marsden was a veteran of the "War for Southern Independence", Lucy became a "veteran of the veteran" with a unique perspective on Southern history and Southern manhood. Her story encompasses everything from the tragic death of a Confederate boy soldier to the feisty narrator's daily battles in the Home--complete with visits from a mohawk-coiffed candy-striper.Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells Allis proof that brilliant, emotional storytelling remains at the heart of great fiction.

Allan Gurganus's <i>The Practical Heart</i> (0-679-43763-0) will be published by Knopf in August 2001. He lives in North Carolina.