"I love the paint of words...." So begins a poem by Ruth Bell Graham, best known as the wife of popular evangelist Billy Graham. Although poetry is at the heart of this beautifully laid-out "scrapbook" of her life, there's much more here in the way of Graham memorabilia: antique photos, plaintive journal entries, childhood drawings, love letters, and old college schedules: I can't remember when I wasn't scribbling something. I jot things down when I can't sleep or I'm too tired or I need to reflect on friends family, frustrations. Funny moments, notebook upon notebook, a storehouse of memories... Like Graham herself, there's plenty of humor here, and just a spark of mischief: whether it's her memories of breaking curfew in college and getting grounded ("I found I had plenty of time to write"), or her thoughts on marriage ("Divorce never... murder maybe").

Peppered throughout are short, boxed vignettes about Ruth written by her children, her husband, one-time neighbor and crime novelist Patricia Cornwell, author Jan Karon, and former First Lady Barbara Bush. By turns poignant, humorous, and wistful, this scrapbook memoir is a fitting salute to an admired personality. --Cindy Crosby


Book Description

Footprints Of A Pilgrim is Ruth Bell Graham's life story told in her own words (weaving together her prose and poetry) with added tidbits and anecdotes from her family (husband Billy and her children Gigi, Anne, Franklin, Ruth and Ned) and many of her friends (including Barbara Bush, Lady Bird Johnson, Jan Karon, Patricia Cornwell and others). With snatches of insight and glimpses of grace, Footprints Of A Pilgrim tells the story of a life (a very full and special life) complete with memories of joy, pain, brokenness, and healing. Also included are many never before published pictures which illustrate the remarkable journey of Ruth Bell Graham, as a child of a missionaries in Quingjiang, China in 1920, until today at her home in Little Piney Cove, Montreat, North Carolina.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Two pilgrims populate this book: The author, Ruth Bell Graham, and her evangelist husband, Reverend Billy Graham. Her portrait of their marriage and their spiritual work possesses a quiet dignity. (Readers will also enjoy her stories of friends, including Barbara Bush, Lady Bird Johnson, Jan Karon, Patricia Cornwell and others.)

FROM THE PUBLISHER