Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America: A Memoir by His Wife.
[DAVIS, Varina] [Jefferson Davis].
Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America: A Memoir by His Wife.
First edition of Varina Davis's Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America: A Memoir by His Wife
New York: Belford Company, Publishers, 1890.
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Item Number: 149801
First edition of Varina Howell Davis’s intimate and monumental biography of the Confederate President. Large octavo, original publisher’s cloth stamped in black and gilt, patterned endpapers, tissue-guarded frontispiece to each volume, illustrated with plates, portraits, and maps, some folding. In near fine condition. A very nice example.
Jefferson Davis, A Memoir by His Wife (1890), published in two volumes by the Belford Company, serves as both an intimate biography and a partisan historical record of the Confederate president. Written by Varina Howell Davis, with portions dictated by Jefferson Davis before his death, the work combines personal recollection with direct testimony to present him as a principled leader and devoted husband, while framing the Confederacy in sympathetic terms. As a product of its post-Reconstruction moment, the memoir contributes to the “Lost Cause” narrative, reflecting the selective remembrance and ideological reframing that shaped Southern memory of the Civil War. Beyond its portrayal of Davis, the text stands as a valuable primary source for examining how personal loyalty, direct participant voice, and historical revisionism converged in the cultural politics of the late nineteenth century.
