Nancy Johnston HallNANCY JOHNSTON HALL, a medical journalist with a special interest in thehistory of medicine, was inspired to write a fictionalized version of her ownancestors' stories who were among the first settlers in the Blackhawk Territoryof (now) southeastern owa. She carefully researched period customs, language, medicine and culture to ensure historical authenticity, drawing from women'sjournals, original documents, lowa frontier records-and an evocative letterfrom her great-great-grandmother, passed down through the generations. She lives with her Iowa born-and-raised husband, deep in a woods near Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Read More Read Less