An Odd Cross to Bear: A Biography of Ruth Bell Graham

This discerning debut from Blue Wills, a religious studies professor at Davidson College, chronicles the life of Ruth Bell Graham, the wife of evangelist Billy Graham. Blue Wills suggests that Ruth was a poet, practical joker, and philanthropist who “devised her own ethic of Christian womanhood, characterized by ‘adjusting’ to Bill.” The author details how Ruth abandoned her missionary aspirations to stay at home while Billy traversed the globe, but she remained involved in public affairs by contributing to the Children’s Health Center in Asheville, N.C., and advocating for compassion toward such “prodigals” as disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker. Probing Ruth’s poetry and prose, Blue Wills’s careful analysis reveals a woman who was equal parts mischievous and pious, warmhearted and witty (“I’d be ashamed to admit that I had married a woman whose advice I couldn’t take,” Ruth said to Billy during a disagreement). Blue Wills connects the Grahams to larger historical trends and notes that they were prototypical upwardly mobile mid-century white Americans in “bidding farewell to high-density living in favor of solitude” at their Montreat, N.C., home. The author elegantly balances historical perspective, narrative cohesion, and an eye for detail, crafting a richly textured biography. Intimate and insightful, this vividly illuminates the life of a major yet often overlooked figure of 20th-century American evangelicalism. (Oct.)