Seth Dowland

An Odd Cross to Bear

History & Biography

“Unlike her husband, Ruth Bell Graham rarely sought the spotlight, appearing in countless stories about Billy as a mostly silent, always faithful wife. In this empathetic and revealing biography, Anne Blue Wills does what all those stories about Billy and Ruth could not: Wills shows us how Ruth's Calvinist faith and ideas about women's roles shaped her commitments to home and family, as well as her approach to philanthropy and politics. Wills brilliantly captures Ruth's acerbic wit and searching poetry in her own nimble prose, uncovering the surprising contours of a life lived mostly out of the spotlight, but hardly in the shadows.”