On Palace Green

"With careful research and keen insights, Patrick Heffernan illuminates an extraordinary set of letters, deftly documenting the interplay of romance, property and power in Virginia after the American Revolution." - Alan Taylor, author of American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804

From the Introduction to On Palace Green:

In my work I have the privilege of reading hundreds of historic letters preserved in libraries and other archives. There is an excitement in being handed a folder of unseen personal letters from the past . . . and a special delight in reading them. I have composed this small book to bring that delight to others.

Transcribed in full is an exchange of fifty-six letters written in the winter of 1806-1807 by persons whom most readers are not likely to know. There are no very famous persons in the story, though many were importantly involved in shaping the new nation-and the central event is simply a proposal of marriage. Not one of the letters is from either of the love-struck pair to the other; for though some were written, none have been found. So these are not love letters. They are, however, loving, and interesting, and entertaining letters in all sorts of ways. It is the humanity and beauty of the correspondence, not the importance or drama of the events, that encouraged me to make it available to others. - Patrick Heffernan