For marry Sam Houston she did-in the face of strong opposition of family and friends and of Houston's friends and advisers. Twenty-six years younger than her husband, this protected child of a Baptist minister set out to change the life of the frontier hero. Aware that alcoholism and the sorrows of personal misfortune weighed upon him, she battled the former and sought to alleviate the latter.
Her abiding faith in him, coupled with his unceasing devotion to her and to their children, is a central theme of this book. The author explores the personality of Margaret, the idealist whose absorption in religion often led her to melancholia, the reader of romances who was never able to come to terms with the Texas wilderness, the wife who strummed her guitar and wrote love poems during her husband's absences on affairs of state.
This account of Sam Houston's wife, which presents details of the general's life not hitherto explored, is in addition a colorful picture of the time in which she lived. It is a realistic appraisal of Sam and Margaret Houston, to which the author has brought a fresh and sympathetic understanding. In writing the richly human story, he has made extensive use of unpublished manuscripts and original documents in private hands and public archives.
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