Bessie in Love and War: Selections from the Letters and Diaries of Elizabeth Allston Pringle. ELIZABETH ALLSTON PRINGLE (1845-1921) was raised in affluence in antebellum South Carolina, but after a war that wrecked her world, she and her family struggled to survive. Bessie—as she was called—left a widow in her thirties, single handedly took on the daunting task of managing two rice plantations on the Pee Dee River.
Her extraordinary life is well known through her two famous books, A Woman Rice Planter and Chronicles of Chicora Wood, and yet her poignant love story is one she left largely incomplete in her published writings.
Bessie in Love and War, which includes never before published photographs of Mrs. Pringle and her husband, explores that part of her life more intimately, as well as her wartime experiences, through her unpublished letters and diaries, revealing details about a long, unusual courtship, and a passionately happy marriage tragically cut short when her husband passed away at the age of thirty-four. His early, unexpected death was a devastating blow to her, but she found strength and courage through her faith, and went on to lead a remarkable and influential life as a planter and author.
Karen Stokes is an archivist at the South Carolina Historical Society in Charleston, and for over 30 years has worked with historical manuscripts, many of which have served as the inspiration for her writings. She is the author of numerous non-fiction books including The Immortal 600, A Confederate Englishman, Days of Destruction, and An Everlasting Circle: Letters of the Haskell Family of Abbeville, South Carolina, 1861-1865.
Mrs. Stokes is also the author of several works of historical fiction. Her latest non-fiction book is Bessie in Love and War: Selections from the Letters and Diaries of Elizabeth Allston Pringle. A new edition of Emma LeConte’s diary about the burning of Columbia, S.C., edited by Mrs. Stokes and Dr. James E. Kibler, will be released in February 2026.