Something a Bit Different

[ithildin]

Something you may not know about me: I'm fascinated by anything to do with pioneers, and have been since I was a little girl. I'm particularly interested in the experiences of women who came West, and collect books on the subject. Last night I was reading a volume of Wagon Train Women, this one dealing with letters and diaries of women from 1860-65. There's a whole series, but I picked up this one since it was the time period my great great grandparents came to CA (Something I only discovered a few years ago when I found a copy of my great grandmother's marriage certificate in the B.C. Provincial archives. I about fell over when I saw place of birth listed as Grass Valley CA). I'm also rereading 'The Gentle Tamers' and Isabella Bird's 'A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains', which her first person account of her trip in 1873. Another favourite, though it got packed with most of my books that went to Utah, 'They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush'. Now that book I really wanted to reread... need to refresh my memory for a specific purpose :)

Comments

[inimue.livejournal.com]

That's incredibly interesting!

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Aww, thanks :) I'm afraid I bore my family and RL friends to tears when I go off on one of my historical tangents. My brother humoured me on a trip to Yellowstone, taking a detour in Idaho so I could see portions of the Oregon Trail where there's still wagon wheel ruts in the ground.

[sophiedb.livejournal.com]

Now that is cool. Recreations are great, witness accounts are fantastic, but nothing beats genuinely old stuff :)

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

I thought it was cool, but I'm not sure my brother thought it was worth the half hour walk to the site and then back again [g]

[carenejeans.livejournal.com]

Yay Isabella Bird! I love A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains. Also The Englishwoman in American -- which has a *great* chapter where she takes part in a cattle roundup. And I think that's the one where she spends several months in a cabin in the Sierras with a mountain man, a polite young man who holds her ink bottle between his hands to keep it unfrozen while she writes in her journal.

Of course, A Lady's Life is the one with Mountain Jim, who hauls her up a sheer cliff in the Rocky mountains.

And she started travelling "for her health." Gawd.

Have you read Elinor Pruitt Stewart? Her best-known book is "Letters of a Woman Homesteader" because it's all homesteading hardship and romance, heh (and was made into the excellent film Heartland), but also read "Letters on an Elk Hunt," which is later in her life, when things have settled down. It's a wonderful sort of "vacation" journal in the middle of Wyoming, meeting up with odd people on the way. On image that stays in my mind is a honeymooning couple who have an umbrella stuck into a big can, and as their wagon goes along, it tilts and spins around while they laugh and hang on to each other. It's just a great image!

Er, anyway. Just a Me Too here on reading about women who came west.

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Have you read Elinor Pruitt Stewart?

No, but it's going on my list right now :) Thank you!

Always happy to discover a kindred spirit. I have a big smile on my face right now.

[carenejeans.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

I read a fair number of books by and about women in the west back in the day -- I was (and still am) interested in women's diaries and letters. I'll poke around on my shelves and see what else I can recommend. Unfortunately, some of my books are in boxes in the garage -- and so might as *well* be in Utah!

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

I was looking over on Amamzon and couldn't quite remember if some of the books seemed familiar because I have them already, or because I thought about getting them at some point :) But I ended up adding half a dozen to my list regardless!

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Have you read The Living by Annie Dillard? It's about pioneers in the Pacific NW, full of drama and violence and the like. I read it ages before I ever know I'd be moving out here.

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't. Another one for the list!