A Woman of Marked Character
The Imagined Portrait of Sarah Ridge Paschal Pix 1812-1891
Book One: 1812-1848
By Nancy Stanfield Webb
The first book of this intensely researched two-part biographical novel series is set in Georgia and Indian Territory. Sarah Ridge, the educated daughter of a Cherokee leader, witnesses events leading to the removal of her nation to west of the Mississippi River in 1837. Braving a treacherous river journey with her white husband, a lawyer, they arrive in Arkansas and join her family. Dealing with an often-contentious marriage, she bears five children and buries two. Following the "Trail of Tears" when tribal war erupts, Sarah is compelled to seek revenge against powerful forces in the Cherokee Nation.
Portrait of Sarah Ridge Paschal Pix (from original painting, circa 1842) courtesy of the McNeir Family Collection, digitized by Paul Ridenour.
In this sweeping historical novel, the surviving daughter of a prominent Cherokee tribal leader tells her story amid the tragic resettlement of her people from Georgia to Indian Territory during the 1830s, and its ensuing, heartbreaking aftermath.
“In her historical novel, Webb blurs fact and fiction, animating the subject and era. Well-educated and decisive, Sarah took on the role of family matriarch ... while managing her own household amid a frequently fractious marriage. The first half of Sarah’s life, which this book depicts, occurs during the most tumultuous and tragic chapter of Cherokee history. ... [F]or such an important period of history often overlooked in historical fiction, this is a welcome addition.”
Nancy Stanfield Webb
Author Nancy Stanfield Webb is a writer, painter, and photographer who has devoted three decades to researching and writing the two-part biographical fiction series on Sarah Ridge. The great-granddaughter of Texas pioneers and now living in Rhode Island, Webb's essays and interview articles with visual artists have been published in Southwest Art magazine and various regional magazines. She is an associate member of Western Writers of America and is the recipient of a writing residency to Millay Colony for the Arts. A Woman of Marked Character is her debut novel.
