Putnam, Sallie A. Brock

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PUTNAM, Sallie A. Brock

Born 1828, Madison County, Virginia; died 1911

Wrote under: Virginia Madison

Daughter of Ansalem and Elizabeth Beverly Brock; married Richard Putnam, 1882

Little is known of Sallie A. Brock Putnam's early life except she was educated by private tutors and by her father, who taught at the University of Virginia. After his death, Putnam and her mother moved to Richmond, Virginia, until the mother's death in 1865. That summer, Putnam traveled to New York City and was persuaded to write an account of her life in the former Confederate capital, which was published in 1867 as Richmond During the War. The Southern Amaranth (1869) was a collection of Civil War poetry and included some of Putnam's own verses. For 10 years Putnam was associated with Frank Leslie's Lady's Journal and also contributed pieces to other women's magazines. She married a New York City minister, and they traveled extensively.

Richmond During the War displays Putnam's keen eye for detail. Filled with chatty gossip and shrewd observations of life in the beleaguered city, it is a fascinating account of civilians in a war zone. Historians have relied heavily on its descriptions of the inauguration of Jefferson Davis and the Richmond Bread Riot of 1863. Putnam evidently knew the city and its people well; although she wrote from hindsight, many of her conclusions are valid. She was correct in condemning the government's willingness to give President Davis total control of the army, a function more properly entrusted to the secretary of war and the generals. Similarly, her criticisms of Richmond's defenses and food supply are justified. Striking a note of sectional reconciliation at the end of the memoir, Putnam has only praise for Lincoln's policy of Reconstruction and the conduct of the federal troops occupying Richmond in the last days of the war.

Kenneth, My King (1873) is a romance set in the prewar South. It is very much like Jane Eyre. The plot revolves around the love between a young governess, Harriet Royal, and her employer, Kenneth Darrow. Harriet learns the secret of Kenneth's wife, Bertha's, madness and the "shadow of a terrible living sorrow" that hangs over Kenneth. Both Kenneth and his brother Richard were in love with Bertha, and although she married Kenneth, Richard was the father of her child. The novel ends happily with the marriage of Kenneth and Harriet after Bertha dies of a brain hemorrhage, Richard commits suicide, and Harriet's fiancé is conveniently lost at sea.

Kenneth, My King is a standard 19th-century romance, overlaid with gothic trappings and a Pollyannaish nostalgia for the Old South. What saves the novel from mere silliness is the character of Harriet. She is neither a clinging vine nor a flirt, but an independent, reasonable woman. Whereas Jane Eyre displayed the virtues of patience and self-sacrifice, Harriet was far stronger, choosing to work as a governess, rather than dutifully going where others sent her.

It is unfortunate Putnam chose to try her hand at fiction. While Kenneth, My King may have pleased its audience, it does nothing to enhance Putnam's reputation as a writer. It is difficult to understand how someone who displays such perception in her autobiographical works could write such an inane novel.