If you are not familiar with Mary, she is quoted all over the place when it comes to the Civil War. She was married to Confederate officer James Chesnut Jr., and she was very good friends with President Davis and his wife Varina. Obviously, she is writing from a significant Southern perspective.
Mary wrote about her experiences during the Civil War, and later rewrote them. They were not published during her lifetime, but different edited versions have been released since. You can find her actual rewritten work in an 800+ page volume, and her original diary are available. Introductions and annotations, I have heard, are very helpful.
Anyway, during our stay at Mary's former home, Bloomsbury, I acquired a copy of a very nice biography from inn keepers Bruce and Katherine Brown. The book is by Elizabeth Muhlenfeld and I think this is probably the best starting point when delving into the world of Mary Boykin Chesnut.
Mary had a very interesting life, and, with her ties to the very upper levels of the Confederacy, she had a lot of access to a lot of information. In fact, her perspective is really unique with her status and her friends.
During her lifetime, she also translated books, and tried her hand at writing fiction. Muhlenfeld covers the topics of the fiction Mary tried to write. Those works are available if one wants to read them, but I am pretty sure that this biography's descriptions of them will satisfy most reader's curiosity.
The biography also talks about changes made by Mary when she rewrote her diaries later in life. AND, since the volumes of hand written records by Mary Chesnut were not published until some time after her death, the biography talks about the journals themselves, and how they do eventually get published.
Mary has a very fascinating life in general too. It is very interesting to see how her life changes going into the Civil War. Obviously there are big changes during the war, and very dramatic ones afterwards.
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