The Secret Eye: The Journal of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1848-1889 Book

Drawn from the over 400,000 pages of the various diaries of Gertrude Thomas, The Secret Eye paints an extremely deep and intimate portrait of the life of a Southern aristocrat from the idle pleasures of the antebellum period through the glories and miseries of the War Between the States to the privations of Reconstruction to the cusp of the New South. Expertly arranged and edited by Virginia Ingraham Burr, this edition finally makes this precious resource available to the public.

The daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Georgia, Gertrude had a privileged upbringing and her young life was filled with parties, visits, and unique opportunities, such as attending Wesleyan College. After marriage and the War Between the States, however, Gertrude suffered several reversals, slipping into the ranks of the land-rich, cash-poor pauper aristocrats but never losing her spirit as she pursued personal crusades, such as supporting Confederate memorialization and also the suffrage movement, all while caring for her many children.

I would highly recommend The Secret Eye to anyone with a strong academic interest in women's lives during the 19th century. The nature of the diary format might, however, prove too tedious for some readers, who would do well to check out Gertrude's biography, Suffer and Grow Strong, by Dr. Carolyn Newton Curry.