Once upon a time, George Washington was a young man. He hadn’t served as the commander of the Continental Army for the fledgling United States. He hadn’t been elected America’s first president. He hadn’t met and married Martha Custis. Upon the death of his father, young George had to make his own way, creating his own education and livelihood. He became a land surveyor, survived the French and Indian War (including one particular battle where at least one horse was shot out from under him, and two bullets passed through his hat and more through his coat, with none piercing him), and conquered several illnesses.

Students and aficionados of American history are familiar with these occurrences in Washington’s life. What we don’t know much about are the women he loved. Was there anyone else besides Martha, who he married when they were both 27, or Sally Fairfax, the wife of his friend with whom he had a close (and sometimes flirtatious) relationship?

"Historical fiction is one of my favorite ways to explore worlds of the past, and Calvi’s accounts and descriptions of life in colonial and revolutionary America are quite fascinating."

News anchor and debut author Mary Calvi believes that perhaps there was, and it’s on this particular belle and heiress that DEAR GEORGE, DEAR MARY is centered. Mary Eliza Philipse was perhaps the wealthiest young woman in colonial America. Living on her family’s extensive and luxurious properties in New York, she had suffered the loss of her beloved mother, father and younger sister Margaret. Her older brother served as her guardian. It is part of the historical record that George and Mary did indeed meet, at the home of one of his close friends, in 1753. This novel tells Calvi’s imagined recreation of their relationship, courtship and separation, as well as the historical events that happened before, during and after their early connection.

Calvi has produced a highly readable and enjoyable account of the social mores of the 1750s. Readers get a clear sense of the fashions, the edibles and the courtship practices of colonial America (at least in the upper classes). What was it like to be a wealthy, single woman during a time when her male relatives determined who she would be allowed to see socially, as well as who she would marry? Mary was attractive and had many who sought to court her, yet she was still unmarried well into her 20s. Calvi reimagines her first meeting with George at the Philipse Manor House, after Mary has spent weeks reading the journals of Colonel Washington’s battleground experiences and become an ardent admirer of the young soldier. When they finally meet, they are drawn into a remarkable connection based on her deep sensitivities and his bravery and character.

Yet all too soon, the couple is separated, and the longing they each feel to see the other again isn’t satisfied for months --- in fact, it’s close to two years. In the pre-Skype days of instant and immediate connection across the miles, how might they have communicated? Calvi imagines that it was via letters, and with Washington’s actual words, she draws us into the love and yearning of two people separated by both distance and conflict, as well as family and government.

Historical fiction is one of my favorite ways to explore worlds of the past, and Calvi’s accounts and descriptions of life in colonial and revolutionary America are quite fascinating. Her prose is vivid, and I was able to clearly imagine the New York and Virginia lands and properties of her characters, as well as the battlegrounds of Pennsylvania and the Hudson. I was interested to explore what could have happened with George and Mary, and the love they might have had for each other. Most of all, I enjoyed reading Washington’s words fitted to the actual and possible events of that era. What was his personal life like before he married Martha?

DEAR GEORGE, DEAR MARY introduces us to something that might have been, by an author who clearly loves her characters and their lives.