THE LEES OF VIRGINIA

The author of The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page has proved his ability to breathe life into documentary evidence, and any book by the man who has won the Pulitzer Prize three times, is a sure candidate for best seller lists. The market for this is that wide public that invests in possibly three ""big biographies"" for display in a prominent place, sure evidence of cultural interests and passport to the snob sanctum. In addition, there is the less extensive public sincerely interested in a microscopic view of a segment of American life, no longer existing, in a family which stood for the best in our Colonial and early national history, in the State of Virginia and what she represents. The story opens with that Richard Lee who came to Virginia in 1640 -- and ends with the ""noblest of them all"" -- Robert E. Lee.