The author wrote a fictionalized biography of -- George Washington's Mother (1961, p. 620, J-220) -- a subject better suited to the intimate approach and chronological presentation which make Sword and Pen so unwieldy. The subject is innately interesting -- the young men who were George Washington's aides de camp. However, Reed, Trumbull, Hamilton et al are introduced as they came and went during the progress of the war, which is also reported in detail. This produces a welter of facts and, in spite of the obvious amount of research that was necessary, none of them emerge as clearly defined or analyzed character and even the ambitious young Alexander Hamilton fails to stand out. When the author uses excerpted letters, etc., in her text, their reality overshadows the patches of weak, fictionalized dialogue.