I am the author, Julia Oliver. DEVOTION is a novel based on the life of Varina Anne ("Winnie") Davis, youngest child of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Winnie was born the last year of the Civil War. She lived as a young child in Canada and Memphis, and from the age of 12 to 17, she attended a boarding school in Germany. After returning to this country speaking better German than she did English, Winnie traveled with her father to Confederate Army reunions during the 1880s, and became an icon of The Lost Cause. She also traveled with her good friends the Joseph Pulitzers, worked as a journalist in New York, and wrote novels. The love of her life was a "Yankee" from Syracuse, New York; neither he nor she ever married. Winnie Davis died at the age of 34, and was given a military funeral. This novel received the 2007 John Esten Cooke Fiction Award, and was a Finalist for Foreword Magazine's Best Books of 2006 List.