Dear George, Dear Mary: A Novel of George Washington's First Love

NOW THE SUBJECT OF A SMITHSONIAN CHANNEL DOCUMENTARY

Never-before-published historical detail. Skillful storytelling. Unforgettable characters. Crafted from hundreds of centuries-old letters, witness accounts, and journal entries, Dear George, Dear Mary explores Washington's relationship with his first love, the richest belle of Colonial America, Mary Eliza Philipse. 

AMAZON BESTSELLER

Did unrequited love spark a flame that ignited a cause that became the American Revolution? From elegant eighteenth-century society to bloody battlefields, the novel creates breathtaking scenes and riveting characters. Dramatic portraits of the two main characters unveil a Washington on the precipice of greatness, using the very words he spoke and wrote, and his ravishing love, whose outward beauty and refinement disguise a complex inner struggle.

Dear George, Dear Mary reveals why George Washington had such bitter resentment toward the British Army, established nearly two decades before the American Revolution, and it unveils details of a deception long hidden from the world that led Mary Philipse to be condemned to death. 

Praise for Mary Calvi's Dear George, Dear Mary novel 

"Calvi's debut skillfully depicts the ill-fated love story of a promising 24-year-old colonel named George Washington and Mary Eliza Philipse, a...New York heiress, {in this} 'affecting' narrative."―Publishers Weekly

"Calvi's portrait of Washington as an earnest young man striving for success but beleaguered on every front is convincing and, in a way, endearing. It is also a fascinating and unique look at pre-Revolutionary War society, with its misunderstandings and simmering resentments, and notable for the author's use of contemporaneous documents."―Booklist