What began as a journal for her daughters exploded into a national bestseller when Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey published her first novel, A Woman of Independent Means, in 1978. Since then, the story of Bess Steed, Hailey's irrepressible grandmother, has become the acclaimed one-woman show starring Barbara Rush. This special audio presentation is Barbara Rush's tour de force performance of that play. Told entirely through letters, the action follows Bess's life from 1899, when she is in the fourth grade, through to her dearth in 1977. What evolves is a moving portrait of a memorable character.