In 1986, Elizabeth Ward Hoskins died leaving the contents of her home on Cape Cod to my husband, Donald Ward Bennett Edwards. He grew up in California unaware of his Ward family history in Boston. He had the opportunity while still a young boy to meet his great aunt, Elizabeth Bruen Perkins (Bessie), who speaks for the family in this biographical book which begins with her grandfather, Samuel Gray Ward, a prominent member of Boston's society and patron to many writers and artists. In Ralph Waldo Emerson's book, Letter to a Friend, the friend referred to is Samuel Gray Ward with whom he had a life long friendship. Elizabeth Hoskins, like many New England families of that era, never threw away items such as letters, news articles, scrapbooks and post cards. While working to dispose many of the items in the house unaware of the many famous people acquainted with the family, I discovered a manuscript dated 1928 written by Howard Ridgely Ward, the brother of Elizabeth Perkins. In it he described his life with the Thomas Wren Wards of New York and his Bostonian grandparents. It became obvious that there was a fascinating story to be written and so I began. It took two years to transcribe all the material at which time I began to relate closely with the course of the life of Elizabeth Perkins. Events, except for very few, in The Chess Queen actually took place, only the dialogue with its emotional content is my own. I know Bessie spoke through me to tell her story.