In the postwar years, some of the early books by Southern women had been histories or biographies of historical figures, such as that by Varina Davis of her husband. The UDC encouraged women to write their own stories. Such memoirs became part of the public discourse about the war, so that women's roles and sacrifices were acknowledged. Their accounts of antebellum society became part of an idealized past. At the turn of the century, a dozen memoirs by Southern women were published.