Devil's Dream

Madison Smartt Bell, one of the finest and most respected contemporary American novelists, examines the life of Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the most reviled men in American history. Though Forrest is today remembered primarily as the founder of the Ku Klux Klan, he made his name as a brilliant and ferocious soldier, who rose through the ranks of the Confederate army despite a lack of training and a propensity for losing his temper with his superiors. Bell creates a complex portrait of Forrest as a military genius, a rabid agitator, a gambling addict, and a slave trader with a black mistress and two families. What emerges is a man still worthy of vilification, though perhaps for reasons other than those most commonly cited today.