SALLY CARY was a reigning belle of the graceful Virginia life that moved between beautiful plantations and the political and cultural centers of Williamsburg. Soon after she married the well-to-do George William Fairfax in 1748, she met his friend, George Washington, an awkward sixteen-year-old. Having assumed adult responsibilities on the death of his father, five years before, young Washington missed the social graces he had never had time to acquire, and Sally provided the encouragement he needed to learn them. She was his first love as a boy; as a man, after his happy marriage to Martha Custis, he retained a life-long affection for the kind, vivacious young woman who had helped him.

In telling the story of both George and Sally, Marguerite Vance, author of many fine biographies for young people, illuminates a different Washington from the stiff, austere character often painted by history. The book contrasts sharply the hardships of his early days as a surveyor and soldier in the French and Indian war with the gracious life in the neighboring plantations of Belvoir, the Fairfax home, and Mount Vernon.

Handsomely illustrated by Leonard Weisgard, a winner of the Caldecott Medal, this poignant story gives an unusual and moving view of our most famous American.

From the dust jacket