"Told with warmth, evoking the distinctive aura of a certain class of Southerners and the lure of a city where Walworth descendants may be found today." --Publishers Weekly "The depiction of the antebellum years calls to mind John Jakes' best seller, North and South. Jakes' novel, however, does not depict the human issues of the time as honestly as Pilgrimage does." --Mississippi Magazine "Collier writes of this loving home and its inhabitants with great familiarity and warmth." --Southern Living Based upon the family history of John Walworth and author Louise Wilbourn Collier, Pilgrimage: A Tale of Old Natchez is the bittersweet saga of the family's struggle to survive the devastation of War and-even more difficult-the subsequent cultural and social changes that followed. Tracing the years from 1830 to 1930, this is a generational tale that relates not only the effect the Civil War had upon this family but also upon the historic town of Natchez and its surroundings.The singular focus of this work is The Burn, one of Natchez's most-adored homes. A family estate for more than a century, it serves as the backdrop for the story. From its halls Collier spins her story of the ways in which the homeand its people faced the transformation as told by Aunt Clara, a war-made spinster whose purpose is to maintain the genealogical threads of the family. Louise Wilbourn Collier was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1925. Growing up in the Great Depression and moving frequently, Ms. Collier looked to The Burn as a "true home." She married John Stuart Collier in 1953 and raised4 children. Two decades later at the encouragement of her cousin, Margaret Wynn, Collier began to write the stories that would become Pilgrimage. With her book in its third printing and another book in consideration, she resides withher husband in Memphis.
