Agnes Surriage, it turns out, was more Pygmalion than Cinderella. Her role models were the fiercely independent "codfish widows, "? wives of the early Marblehead fishermen who managed home and family seven months a year without their husbands. In Agnes's version of My Fair Lady, she had to act as her own Henry Higgins while making the often painful transformation from "girl of all works"? at the Fountain Inn to the charming and dignified Lady Agnes, wife of Sir Charles Henry Frankland. After deconstructing the legend for twenty-five years, author F. Marshall Bauer has unearthed a story of money, lust and vindication.

Christian Encounters, a series of biographies from Thomas Nelson Publishers, highlights important lives from all ages and areas of the Church. Some are familiar faces. Others are unexpected guests. But all, through their relationships, struggles, prayers, and desires, uniquely illuminate our shared experience When she arrived in the New World at eighteen, Anne Bradstreet was a reluctant passenger: her old, comfortable lifestyle in England was quickly dashed against the rocks of the Massachusetts Bay. While the wilderness of America and the drama of establishing the Massachusetts Bay Colony at times overwhelmed her, she always took refuge in the belief that it was God’s plan. Anne respected the Puritan teachings and followed them her entire life, always searching for God’s hand in everything around her. But she also was inspired by a strong female leader of the day, Queen Elizabeth, and this influence taught Anne to push herself beyond the day’s limitations. She managed her home, educated her children, encouraged her husband, and sought her Lord—all with a poet’s heart.