Angela Tarango

An Odd Cross to Bear

History & Biography

“Anne Blue Wills takes great care to construct a complete picture of Ruth’s early life, tracing out her unusual childhood in China, her close relationship to her parents and siblings, her evolving faith, and her interior wishes to be a single missionary to Tibet, which becomes derailed upon meeting Billy. By centering Ruth, her poetry, and her religious worldview, Wills draws Ruth out of the shadow of her famous husband and paints a portrait of a staunchly strong-willed woman with a sharp sense of humor. . . . Despite the lack of access to Ruth's personal writings, Wills’s innovative use of Ruth's published works and especially her poetry show how scholars can successfully use the tools of feminist historians to tell the story of a woman who decidedly rejected that label. An Odd Cross to Bear is a refreshing and highly readable biography that will interest women’s historians, religious historians, and scholars of evangelism.”