The General’s Women, a novel about the World War II romantic triangle of Dwight Eisenhower, his wife Mamie, and his driver and secretary Kay Summersby, is Albert’s third work of biographical-historical fiction. It follows Loving Eleanor, a fictional account of the friendship of Lorena Hickok and Eleanor Roosevelt, and A Wilder Rose, the story of Rose Wilder Lane and the writing of the Little House books. Albert is also the author of two memoirs: An Extraordinary Year of Ordinary Days and Together, Alone: A Memoir of Marriage and Place. Other nonfiction titles include What Wildness Is This: Women Write about the Southwest (winner of the 2009 Willa Award for Creative Nonfiction); Writing from Life: Telling the Soul's Story; and Work of Her Own: A Woman's Guide to Success off the Career Track. She is the founder of the Story Circle Network, a nonprofit organization for women writers, and a member of the Texas Institute of Letters. She and her husband Bill live on thirty-one acres in the Texas Hill Country, where she gardens, tends chickens and geese, and indulges her passions for needlework and (of course) reading.
Books by Susan Wittig Albert
A Wilder Rose
An Extraordinary Year of Ordinary Days
Together, Alone: A Memoir of Marriage and Place
The China Bayles Mysteries
The Darling Dahlias Mysteries
The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter
Writing from Life: Telling the Soul’s Story
Work of Her Own
With Bill Albert
The Robin Paige Victorian-Edwardian Mysteries
Edited Anthologies
What Wildness Is This: Women Write about the Southwest
With Courage and Common Sense: Memoirs from the Older Women's Legacy Circle
Praise for Susan Wittig Albert’s Fiction
For Loving Eleanor, the story of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok:
“Albert captures the turbulent thirties and forties with affecting detail, writing a novel notable not only for its emotional authenticity, but for its careful historicity. Loving Eleanor is an intelligent love story with huge historical appeal.” —Foreword Reviews
“This warm, extensively researched novel will entrance readers and inspire them to look further into the lives of two extraordinary women.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
For A Wilder Rose, the story of Rose Wilder Lane, who transformed her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, into a literary icon:
“Albert does an excellent job of bringing historical figures to life in a credible way; her novel is well paced, its characterizations are strong, and the plot is solidly constructed. Readers begin to understand Lane's personality and mentality, as the well as the things that drive her.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A compelling depiction of one of the most significant literary collaborations of the 20th century. That the two people involved were mother and daughter adds to its complexity and human interest.” —Anita Claire Fellman, author of Little House, Long Shadow: Laura Ingalls Wilder's Impact on American Culture
For Albert’s mysteries:
“[Albert] consistently turns out some of the best-plotted mysteries on the market.” —Houston Chronicle
“Quirky, enlightening and surprisingly profound, Albert's mysteries are an absolute delight to read.” —Ransom Notes
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