Born in Ottumwa, Iowa in 1880, Morrow went on to graduate with a history degree from the University of Wisconsin. She then married Henry Willsie and moved to Arizona, publishing her first novel, "Heart of the Desert", in 1913 and working as editor of women's magazine The Delineator from 1914-1919. She divorced Willsie in 1922 and remarried a year later to William Morrow, a publisher, who died in 1931. She continued writing throughout her life, with a number of books based on her in-depth research into Abraham Lincoln. Her last book was published 1939, and she died of influenza the following year. This novel, published in 1927, takes place in the Lincoln White House during the first two years of the Civil War. The author invents a Southern plot to influence Lincoln by having a beautiful, passionately pro-slavery southerner work in the White House as Mary Lincoln's social secretary. The plot is a bit melodramatic and, towards the end, unbelievable. Still, the author heavily researched the historical events, and was able to interview some of people who were present. The depiction of the political and military events and of life in the White House are very well done. The story culminates with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. It is the first of three novels that are called "The Great Captain Trilogy"