From Library Journal
A study of evangelist Billy Graham's wife from an old family friend?Edgar Award-winning author Cornwell.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Entertainment Weekly
The famous evangelist's wife (who helped raise Cornwell after her mother had a nervous breakdown) does in fact resemble the tough, self-reliant Kay Scarpetta of Cornwell's best-selling novels. Cornwell, who profiled Mrs. Graham's early life in her first book, 1983's A Time for Remembering, wrote this biography as a 24-year-old police reporter in 1981 and '82, but never published it.... Cornwell has added a new introduction and epilogue to this admiring study of a smart woman who made the best of a tough deal. Still, the Grahams did not speak to her for years after she wrote it.


From Kirkus Reviews
A syrupy but engaging biography of the famous preacher's irrepressible wife. This is bestselling novelist Cornwell's (Unnatural Exposure, p. 759, etc.) second attempt at a biography of her mentor, 77-year- old Ruth Bell Graham, wife of evangelist Billy. The first try, published in 1982, caused the very private Ruth to distance herself from Cornwell for eight years. It's hard to imagine what Ruth could find objectionable about this version: She comes across as a near saint, enduring a dangerous mission childhood in China, terrible migraine headaches as an adult (of which she ``never complained''), and marriage to a mostly absent husband. Graham himself doesn't come off so well in this telling, seeming at times imperious or callous, even leaving a feverish Ruth alone for days, right after their honeymoon, when he received an invitation to preach (in his bestselling autobiography, Graham notes that, after all, she ``recovered quickly''). The book is filled with the tales of Ruth's quiet and heroic efforts to help others, visiting murderers and addicts in prison, aiding Vietnamese refugees, and assisting many students through college. These stories are touching, but they reveal less about the person of Ruth than they do about the genre of hagiography. In writing this book, Cornwell had complete access to Ruth's diaries but notes that, on a couple of key issues (like her migraines), Ruth censored her own journals. Yet whenever Cornwell allows this guise of saintly perfection to slip away, we glimpse a truly intriguing woman--one who designed their family's hand-hewed log cabin practically behind Billy's back, who learned to ride a motorcycle as an empty-nester, and who nearly killed herself in 1974 while rigging up a daredevil mudslide for her kids on their Carolina mountain. (b&w photos, not seen) (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
Ruth Bell Graham is known as the wife of evangelist Billy Graham. It was Ruth who influenced Billy, as his most trusted life-partner. In Ruth, a Portrait, we meet this fascinating and remarkable woman. Brimming with anecdotes, this is a breathtaking journey, with stops at many of this century's epoch-making events.The childhood years of the future Mrs. Billy Graham were spent light-years away--in the China of the 1920s and 1930s. The daughter of medical missionaries, she and her family were caught in a crucible of unspeakable hardship; in addition to pestilence and plague, there was the unstable political and military turmoil surrounding the Nationalist government, the Communists, and the Japanese invaders. These hazardous realities shaped Ruth Bell and her family, a family inured to difficulties, but buoyed up by their deep belief in God's abiding will.Virtually raised by the Grahams, the author is a repository of Ruth Bell Graham's stories and has seen firsthand the spirit of this courageous woman. Patricia Cornwell not only gives readers a full, rounded, and intimate portrait of Ruth Bell Graham, but also insight into the life of the Graham family and particularly Billy Graham.


From the Publisher
Told in flowing and succinct prose, this portrait of Ruth Bell Graham, the world-famous evangelist Billy Graham's wife gives the reader a first-hand glimpse into some of the great events of the second half of this century. It follows Ruth Bell Graham first as a missionary child from war-ravaged pre-Revolution China and Korea, to peaceful Wheaton, Illinois, and then as a famous evangelist's wife, to the Deep South, Post-War Europe, and the events in America since the 1950s. Far from showing us "The Revival Widow," Patricia Cornwell depicts Ruth Bell as a woman of extraordinary strength, will, and faith, who has influenced the face of modern Christianity. Inseparable from her husband, we learn much about Billy Graham's beliefs, his background, the evangelist's private life, and witness his rapid climb to world prominence, and Ruth's invaluable contributions, support, and sacrifices to her family, and his.Patricia Cornwell, with this impressive account, has written a magnificent biography of a great American lady.


From the Inside Flap
Ruth Bell Graham is known as the wife of evangelist Billy Graham. It was Ruth who influenced Billy, as his most trusted life-partner. In Ruth, a Portrait, we meet this fascinating and remarkable woman. Brimming with anecdotes, this is a breathtaking journey, with stops at many of this century's epoch-making events.

The childhood years of the future Mrs. Billy Graham were spent light-years away--in the China of the 1920s and 1930s. The daughter of medical missionaries, she and her family were caught in a crucible of unspeakable hardship; in addition to pestilence and plague, there was the unstable political and military turmoil surrounding the Nationalist government, the Communists, and the Japanese invaders. These hazardous realities shaped Ruth Bell and her family, a family inured to difficulties, but buoyed up by their deep belief in God's abiding will.

Virtually raised by the Grahams, the author is a repository of Ruth Bell Graham's stories and has seen firsthand the spirit of this courageous woman. Patricia Cornwell not only gives readers a full, rounded, and intimate portrait of Ruth Bell Graham, but also insight into the life of the Graham family and particularly Billy Graham.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The childhood years of the future Mrs. Billy Graham were spent in the mysterious China of the 1920s and '30s. The daughter of medical missionaries, she and her family were caught in a crucible of unspeakable hardship. In addition to pestilence and plague, there was the unstable political and military turmoil surrounding the Nationalist government, the Communists, and the Japanese invaders. These hazardous realities shaped Ruth Bell and her family, a family inured to difficulties, but buoyed up by their deep belief in God's abiding will. As the wife of Billy Graham, she stood alongside him at presidential inaugurations and at important events, yet often sat alone, hidden in the crowd at Billy's international and national rallies. Here we see how valuable Ruth's contribution to Billy's work has really been. She kept their home and family life intact, reached out to those searching for Christ at Billy's crusades, and brought spiritual guidance and comfort to the people around her - her handymen, local college students, and anyone who wrote, called, or showed up at her doorstep looking for hope. As a young girl, Ruth wanted to be a missionary, never dreaming that she would marry one of the greatest preachers our country has known, and bring Christ to people far away as well as right around the corner.

SYNOPSIS

A warm yet revealing biography of a remarkable woman.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

What is it like to be the wife of the preacher to the presidents, the peripatetic world evangelist Billy Graham? In this new version of her first book, published in 1983, popular crime novelist Patricia Cornwell, a long-time friend of the Graham family, draws an intimate and engaging portrait of a strong woman whose life is deeply informed by her religious faith. Relying on conversations with Ruth Bell Graham and anecdotes from Ruth Graham's life with Billy Graham, Cornwell chronicles the life of Ruth Graham from her childhood years as the daughter of medical missionaries in China to her life as the woman at the side of Billy Graham. As the child of these missionaries, Ruth Graham's strong, indomitable will was shaped by the hardships which her family faced as Christians in a country whose government opposed the presence of Christians. This biography also tells of Ruth Graham's great desire to be a missionary to Tibet, and the ways in which her dreams were altered when she met Billy Graham at Wheaton College in 1940. Cornwell's biography illuminates the life of a woman whose devotion to husband and family is an expression of her devotion to God. Ruth Graham also emerges in this book as a strong-willed mother who seeks to teach her children about the love and compassion of God through her own example. Cornwell's book will serve as an ideal companion volume to Billy Graham's just-released autobiography, Just As I Am. (Sept.)

Library Journal

A study of evangelist Billy Graham's wife from an old family friend -- Edgar Award-winning author Cornwell.

Kirkus Reviews

A syrupy but engaging biography of the famous preacher's irrepressible wife.

This is bestselling novelist Cornwell's (Unnatural Exposure, p. 759, etc.) second attempt at a biography of her mentor, 77-year- old Ruth Bell Graham, wife of evangelist Billy. The first try, published in 1982, caused the very private Ruth to distance herself from Cornwell for eight years. It's hard to imagine what Ruth could find objectionable about this version: She comes across as a near saint, enduring a dangerous mission childhood in China, terrible migraine headaches as an adult (of which she "never complained"), and marriage to a mostly absent husband. Graham himself doesn't come off so well in this telling, seeming at times imperious or callous, even leaving a feverish Ruth alone for days, right after their honeymoon, when he received an invitation to preach (in his bestselling autobiography, Graham notes that, after all, she "recovered quickly"). The book is filled with the tales of Ruth's quiet and heroic efforts to help others, visiting murderers and addicts in prison, aiding Vietnamese refugees, and assisting many students through college. These stories are touching, but they reveal less about the person of Ruth than they do about the genre of hagiography. In writing this book, Cornwell had complete access to Ruth's diaries but notes that, on a couple of key issues (like her migraines), Ruth censored her own journals.

Yet whenever Cornwell allows this guise of saintly perfection to slip away, we glimpse a truly intriguing woman—one who designed their family's hand-hewed log cabin practically behind Billy's back, who learned to ride a motorcycle as an empty-nester, and who nearly killed herself in 1974 while rigging up a daredevil mudslide for her kids on their Carolina mountain.