A problematic relationship forms the core of this anthology--the interwoven lives of southern women.  On the one hand, they are linked by gender; on the other, they are divided by racism, class conflict, and sexual politics.  As suggested by these selections from both white and African-American women from the early eighteenth to the late twentieth century, their struggles capture the essence and the evolution of the southern woman's voice.  With artistic and historical richness seldom found in literary anthologies, this collection includes letters, journal and diary entries, essays, poetry, and fiction, with an introduction to each historical period and a biography of each author.  While all the writers share the label "southern woman," some test the boundary of that designation.  Fanny Kemble, a British actress, moved to the Georgia plantation that her husband inherited; Leigh Allison Wilson, the youngest writer, was born and raised in the South but writes about New York state.  However, all authors reflect or refract their personal experience; together their work conveys the range and texture of the literary tradition of the South and of its women writers. List of writers THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH Eliza Lucas Pinckney Eliza Wilkinson Anne Newport Royall Caroline Howard Gilman Fanny Kemble Susan Petigru King Bowen Harriet Jacobs Frances E. W. Harper Sarah Grimk#65533; THE CIVIL WAR SOUTH Mary Boykin Chesnut Augusta Jane Evans Wilson Elizabeth Keckley Margaret Junkin Preston THE POSTBELLUM SOUTH Katherine McDowell Mary Noailles Murfree Grace King Kate Chopin Julia Mood Peterkin Alice Dunbar-Nelson THE MODERN SOUTH Caroline Gordon Evelyn Scott Katherine Anne Porter Zora Neale Hurston Carson McCullers Flannery O'Connor THE CONTEMPORARY SOUTH Eudora Welty Margaret Walker Doris Betts Sonia Sanchez Mab Segrest Bobbie Ann Mason Alice Walker Ellen Gilchrist Leigh Allison Wilson