No contemporary figure quite compares to Kate Chase Sprague, the protagonist of Jennifer Chiaverini’s historical novel Mrs. Lincoln’s Rival… Previously best known for her Elm Creek Quilts series, Madison novelist Chiaverini began a sequence of popular historical novels set during the Civil War last year with Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, based on Elizabeth Keckley, a free black businesswoman who became a confidante to Mary Todd Lincoln, and continued with The Spymistress, inspired by Elizabeth Van Lew, who spied for the Union behind Confederate lines in Richmond, Va. In addition to simply being fascinating stories, these novels go a long way in capturing the texture of life for women, rich and poor, black and white, in those perilous years.
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