Here is the story of a remarkable pioneer American woman, forgotten for nearly two centuries, brought back to light.

Presented for the first time is the adventurous life of Nancy Polke Lasselle, a daughter of the Polk family, who grew up amid wars on the Indiana frontier, married and began writing for a small-town newspaper. Then unexpectedly she moved to Washington, D.C., just as the country was entering the decade of controversy that exploded in the Civil War, in which one of her nine children would fall to Confederate bullets, and another barely survived. Longing for her Hoosier home, she nevertheless founded a newspaper consulted by the powerful men who ran the capital city. There she mingled with congressmen, bankers and Presidents, and eventually revealed them in two popular Washington novels. Her skeptical observations of society and politicians remain timely more than a century later.

Based on her personal letters and writings, some of which are included, and with more than 40 illustrations and full index, this may be the most original biography of the year.

Hardcover: 209 pages including appendices

Year: 2021