Welcome to  “A Woman’s Place.”  My new blog is a supplement to my author website:  www.heathleeauthor.com This blog will explore issues, archetypes, and social structures in Southern women’s history.

“A Woman’s Place” will start our explorations with Winnie, but it will not end with her.  Consider my blog a gathering place, a shelter, a refuge for female rebels, renegades, and those who just don’t fit into the “ladylike” mold.  Society has tried for years to put these strong, smart women “in their place.”  But they have defied convention since history began.

My upcoming biography of Winnie, Winnie Davis:  Daughter of the Lost Cause (out April 1, 2014 from Potomac Books,) explores the life of the youngest daughter of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his second wife, Varina.  As I write in my new book, Winnie “sat on the fence between Victorian repression and fin-de-siecle rebellion against traditional women’s roles.”

Winnie as a little girl, courtesy of Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia

Born in 1864, Winnie was a link between Old South and New.  Though she seemed to be the ideal woman of the “Lost Cause”-she herself displayed a subversive streak that made her more complex and interesting than the simple Southern sweetheart she played onstage at Confederate veterans’ reunions.

She was a secret rebel…and that is why I find her totally fascinating.

Together, we will explore these women and their place in society through events, food, fashion, books and art-my inspiration might come from anywhere!

Heath Hardage Lee (HHL)