Reading the Man The Private Letters of Robert E. Lee

"Over the past several years historian Elizabeth Brown Pryor has uncovered important documents in both private and public collections that give a personal account of Robert E. Lee's military ability, his beliefs, and his time. Reading the Man presents dozens of these previously unpublished letters in their entirety, using them as departure points for a series of surprising "historical excursions" that shed new light on every aspect of Lee, telling his life story with an innovative blend of analysis, historiography, and rich period detail. Through them we are able to look across time at Lee's troubled childhood, the hardening of his anti-abolitionist views, his celebrated but controversial battlefield performance, and his final years." "As Pryor's research shows, Robert E. Lee had no premonition of fame. He never saw himself as a tragic, heroic figure, and as a result his letters are remarkably open. Lee's guileless pen reveals a person who is frequently as confused, passive, and vulnerable as he is conscientious and brave; a witty storyteller and merry companion who suffers from loneliness and deep depression; a dreary moralizer who writes sexually suggestive letters to his female friends; and an intrepid commander whose very boldness may have lost him the war."--BOOK JACKET.Pryor, Elizabeth Brown is the author of 'Reading the Man The Private Letters of Robert E. Lee', published 2007 under ISBN 9780670038299 and ISBN 0670038296.