A Devil and a Good Woman, Too

Reviews / Votes

Williams makes a convincing argument for [Peterkin's] singularity as a woman and, more important, for the resurrection of her work. -- <i>Publishers Weekly</i> An outstanding book which makes a genuine contribution to the study of women writers, South Carolina, the South, and the wellsprings of literary creativity. . . . An exceptional piece of work. -- Louis D. Rubin Jr. A well-researched account of Peterkin's life, almost as readable as a good novel. -- <i>Atlanta Journal-Constitution</i> The documentation of this life is absolutely fascinating. -- <i>Southern Seen</i> [An] excellent study . . . Williams depicts Peterkin as a woman with talent, confidence, vision, and courage-attributes all carefully supported by data from archival and published sources. She coherently weaves Peterkin's life and writings into the contexts of people, place, and time. Peterkin's biography is a work to be read and remembered. Highly recommended. -- <i>Choice</i> In this subtle, complex, often brilliant study Williams delves into the life of Julia Peterkin with that same passionate thoroughness, critical wisdom, appetite for irony and subversion, and the sleuth's love for the search with which Peterkin herself explored the human condition in the South. -- Charles Joyner * author of <i>Remember Me: Slave Life in Coastal Georgia</i> * Truly remarkable. I am bowled over both by Peterkin's life and by Williams' knowledge and skill in presenting it. This is a beautiful piece of work, as moving and tragic and as brimming with life and psychological insight as Peterkin's works themselves. -- Harlan Grene * author of <i>What the Dead Remember</i> * Superb . . . Fills a critical gap in southern studies . . . Williams opens a very valuable door onto this pivotal era. -- <i>Southern Quarterly</i>