Their work was the work of survival, it demanded as much from them as from their men - and at last that partnership has been recognized. These were women of relentless determination, whose tenacity helped them to conquer loneliness and privation. Their personal recollections of prairie fires, locust plagues, cowboy shootouts, Indian raids, and blizzards on the plains vividly reveal the drama, danger and excitement of the pioneer experience. Here are their stories: wilderness mothers, schoolmarms, Indian squaws, immigrants, homesteaders, and circuit riders. Never before has there been such a detailed record of women's courage, such a living portrait of the women who civilized the American frontier. Reviewįrom a rediscovered collection of priceless autobiographical accounts written by hundreds of pioneer women, Joanna Stratton has made a remarkable and widely celebrated book. “These voices are haunting” ( The New York Times Book Review), and they reveal the special heroism and industriousness of pioneer women as never before. Their work was the work of survival, it demanded as much from them as from their men-and at last that partnership has been recognized. Never before has there been such a detailed record of women’s courage, such a living portrait of the women who civilized the American frontier.

From a rediscovered collection of autobiographical accounts written by hundreds of Kansas pioneer women in the early twentieth century, Joanna Stratton has created a collection hailed by Newsweek as “uncommonly interesting” and “a remarkable distillation of primary sources.”

Joanna l stratton