A Woman of Marked Character
Book One
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.
A Woman of Marked Character
Book Two
The Imagined Portrait of Sarah Ridge Paschal Pix 1812-1891
Book Two: 1848-1891
By Nancy Stanfield Webb
Set in antebellum Galveston, Texas, and later across the bay on an isolated coastal cattle ranch, this sweeping biographical historical novel concludes Cherokee Sarah Ridge's emotional story of her love of family and perseverance through tragedies.
There as a divorced, independent woman she builds a rewarding life for her three children, while enduring the death of another child, hurricanes, and yellow fever epidemics. Marrying a man much her junior and bearing another son, Sarah Pix trades her city property for an isolated homeplace on 500 acres of prairie ranchland across Galveston Bay. As a determined pioneer, she encounters a bitter land encroachment, the privations of the Civil War, cattle rustling, and heartbreaking adversities that rip her soul.
Portrait of Sarah Ridge Paschal Pix (from original painting, circa 1842) courtesy of the McNeir Family Collection, digitized by Paul Ridenour.
A woman of marked character, as defined in the 1800s, is one known for her remarkable ability and intellect, strong in her friendships and intolerances, and a most useful member of society.
These biographical/historical novels are a weave of fact with fiction. Throughout this narrated series, Sarah Ridge occasionally speaks from the grave to share her intimate thoughts. Richly researched, her existing letters show her love for her family and determination to persevere through unspeakable tragedies. She lived a fruitful and prosperous life, yet endured those tragedies and navigated both racial prejudice and gender expectations. Sarah is a woman of her time—and a woman ahead of it.
“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.”
“From Kirkus Reviews of A Woman of Marked Character, Book One 1812-1848, mentioning Book Two:
”...This novel [Book One] covers her life up to 1848; an upcoming sequel will cover the second half. ... The author thoroughly limns the years of politics and strife to better contextualize Sarah’s narrative, and she includes many passages of Sarah speaking in first-person. ...”
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/historical fiction series on Sarah Ridge. A 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. The author of Book One 1812-1848 of A Woman of Marked Character, with Book Two 1848-1891, Webb concludes the series.
