Between North And South

Emily Wharton, a Philadelphian, in 1842 married Charles Sinkler, a midshipman in the US Navy. Sinkler took his 19-year-old wife to live among his family, wealthy cotton planters outside Charleston, SC. For much of her married life Emily traveled between the two places; her letters, edited by her great-great-granddaughter (a librarian at the U. of Tennessee), were retrieved from the attics of relatives Northern and Southern. LeClercq sees her forebear as a pioneer of sorts, adapting well to the rural, antebellum South--a paternalistic society where opportunities for women were circumscribed--while also thriving in cosmopolitan Philadelphia and endearing herself to the people whose lives she touched in both worlds. c. Book News Inc.