A Paul Morphy Romance

I came across this odd fictional story and thought I'd post it here.  It's a big file: right-click and chose "view image" to see at full size.

"But who would want a chess player for a husband?"

That cuts to the chase quite nicely.

my interesting game in morphy style :

http://www.chess.com/blog/GM_2012/content5

The author died at the age of 73 in 1984, and also wrote among other books "The Gallant Mrs. Stonewall" (nothing to do with the Dutch Defence though):

http://www.amazon.com/Gallant-Mrs-Stonewall-Harnett-Kane/dp/B002AYQ28S/

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/14/obituaries/harnett-t-kane-73-author-of-books-about-the-south.html

I thought it was a cold bath, not a hot bath, that killed him. 

Well, since he beat Lowenstein at age 13, I guess hot vs cold isn't such a stretch. At least the author doesn't turn Morphy into a Confererate spy.

Fabelhaft,  you actually introduced a topic, though a non-chess one, that I'm close to. Literally.  Of course, the Stonewall referred to is Maj. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson, aka Stonewall Jackson, one of the best confederate generals during the American Civil War.  He was accidentally shot by his own men during the war and ended up dying from pneumonia shortly after. His widow was Mary Anna Morrison, presumably the subject of Ms. Kane's book.  Mary Anna was the daughter of Robert Hall Morrison, the first president of Davidson College, very close to where I live. Davidson College in turn was named afer a Revolutionary war hero, General William Lee Davidson.  Morrison, in fact had 8 daughters (and four sons), many of whom married officers in the Confederate army.  Isabella Morrison married  Maj. Gen. Daniel Harvey Hill. Like Jackson, DH Hill had been a Mexican War hero. Before the war, Hill was a faculty member at Davidson and also founded the NC Military Inst. in Charlotte, NC.  Daniel and Isabella's one son became president of what is now the North Carolina State Univ. and another son was appointed Chief Justice on the Arkansas supreme court.  I've visited DH Hill's  grave in the cemetery at Davidson College.

Mary and Isabella's sisers:  Eugenia,  married Brig. Gen. Rufus Barringer; Susan married Major Alphonso Avery ; and Laura married Colonel John Brown.

Hopefully, Harnett Kane's story about Mary Jackson is more accurate than her story on Morphy.