Book details

Dear George, Dear Mary

A Novel of George Washington's First Love

Author: Mary Calvi

Dear George, Dear Mary

Dear George, Dear Mary

About This Book

A novel about heiress Mary Philipse's relationship with George Washington, based on historical accounts, letters, and personal journals by nine-time New York Emmy Award-winning...

Page Count
320
Genre
On Sale
02/19/2019

Book Details

A novel about heiress Mary Philipse's relationship with George Washington, based on historical accounts, letters, and personal journals by nine-time New York Emmy Award-winning journalist Mary Calvi.

“Love is said to be an involuntary passion, and it is, therefore, contended that it cannot be resisted.” —George Washington

Did unrequited love spark a flame that ignited a cause that became the American Revolution? Never before has this story about George Washington been told. Crafted from hundreds of letters, witness accounts, and journal entries, Dear George, Dear Mary explores George’s relationship with his first love, New York heiress Mary Philipse, the richest belle in Colonial America.

From elegant eighteenth-century society to bloody battlefields, the novel creates breathtaking scenes and riveting characters. Dramatic portraits of the two main characters unveil a Washington on the precipice of greatness, using the very words he spoke and wrote, and his ravishing love, whose outward beauty and refinement disguise a complex inner struggle.

Dear George, Dear Mary reveals why George Washington had such bitter resentment toward the Brits, established nearly two decades before the American Revolution, and it unveils details of a deception long hidden from the world that led Mary Philipse to be named a traitor, condemned to death and left with nothing. While that may sound like the end, ultimately both Mary and George achieve what they always wanted.

Imprint Publisher

St. Martin's Press

ISBN

9781250162939

Reading Guide

In The News

"Calvi’s debut skillfully depicts the ill-fated love story of a promising 24-year-old colonel named George Washington and Mary Eliza Philipse, a...New York heiress, {in this} 'affecting' narrative." —Publishers Weekly

"
Calvi’s portrait of Washington as an earnest young man striving for success but beleaguered on every front is
convincing and, in a way, endearing. It is also a fascinating and unique look at pre-Revolutionary War society, with its misunderstandings and simmering resentments, and notable for the author’s use of contemporaneous documents." —Booklist

About the Creators

Dear George, Dear Mary

Dear George, Dear Mary

Dear George, Dear Mary
Dear George, Dear Mary
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