As a novelist and chronicler of Virginia history, John Esten Cooke was considered a major author in the South immediately before and following the Civil War. Although he was trained as a lawyer, Cooke devoted almost all of his energies to being a professional writer. His works, particularly his historical novels about colonial Virginia and his biographies of Confederate generals, created for him a secure reputation as a popular spokesman for the South, and especially for Virginia. Indeed, his most successful novels, The Virginia Comedians and Henry St. John, Gentleman, depict the changing political and cultural climate of the diverse Virginia society before the American Revolution. Surry of Eagle's-Nest and Mohun, set during the Civil War, proved a popular blending of fiction, memoir, and history. Yet, overall, his career is marred by the events of the War that interrupted a promising artistic development, by financial pressures that led...