FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sara Sgarlat, Publicity Director
434-296-2772, ext. 49
ssgarlat@hrpub.com

Dear Companion
The Inner Life of Martha Jefferson
by: Kelly Joyce Neff

     Martha Jefferson is often seen as little more than a background figure overshadowed by her husband’s political, literary, and scientific achievements.  Dear Companion by contrast, paints a young couple very much in love, complete with all the joys and sorrows of their ten-year marriage. A vivid rendering of their emotional life,  Dear Companion depicts Mrs. Jefferson as wife, mother, and busy mistress of a plantation. 

     Dear Companion is Ms. Neff’s account of the private life of Thomas Jefferson and his treasured wife, nicknamed “Patty.”  Since Neff was a child she knew herself to have lived as Martha herself in a past life.  Details that could only come from Martha are woven into the story of one of the most romantic couples in history. Dear Companion has received praise from Jefferson scholars:

“Dear Companion is a delight for those who yearn to imagine in poignant detail the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and the wife he cherished,” Camilla Rockwell, co-producer of the film Thomas Jefferson. “The inner life of Martha Jefferson, as recounted by Kelly Neff, is a fabric of conflicting emotions-grief, compassion, and above all, a passionate love for her famous husband.  Ms. Neff supports her intuitions with solid historical research into the period.  The result is a finely-focused portrait of the Jeffersons’ private lives-what they wore, what they ate, their entertainments and illnesses, and their relationships with their families and slaves.  All of these details are filtered through the consciousness of a woman whose self-worth and capacity for love was constantly challenged by the recurring tragic deaths of family members and children.  Her heroic attempt to accept these losses and retain the love of her husband is the core of her remarkable story.” 

     Dr. Jack McLaughlin, Professor Emeritus at Clemson University and author of To His Excellency, Thomas Jefferson: Letters to a President and Jefferson and Monticello: Biography of a Builder, both History Book Club feature selections.

Ms. Neff has an interdisciplinary degree in Celtic Studies, which includes work in Anthropology, History, Language, and Literature.  She has worked as a living history interpreter at The Maritime Museum in San Francisco, and in Colonial Williamsburg.
 
In addition to authoring two books, Ms. Neff is a traditional midwife, herbalist and an active craftsperson. She currently resides in San Francisco with her two children. Her first book, Everyday Life in Two Worlds: A Psychic’s Experience, was also published by Hampton Roads.

6 x 9, Trade Paper, 629 pages, ISBN 1-57174-075-9, $14.95