Phyllis Whitney’s “The Quicksilver Pool” (1955) is a Civil War novel which tells the story of a border state woman who marries a wounded Staten Island soldier whom she has nursed back to health after a battle. He brings her home to the island to live with him, his son and his domineering mother. This … More The Quicksilver Pool

In “Step to the Music”, Phyllis Whitney’s 1953 Civil War novel for young people, the country’s divided loyalties are reflected in the experiences of two Bard Avenue families. When seventeen-year-old South Carolinian Lorena Emory comes to live with her West Brighton relations, the Garretts, for the duration of the war, her ardent and outspoken Southern … More Step to the Music