ELINORE PRUITT STEWART (1876-1933) caused a literary sensation in 1914
when her Letters of a Woman Homesteader was published. A recent widow
and now-single mother to a small daughter, she accepted a job as
housekeeper to a wealthy cattleman in Wyoming named Stewart. These
letters, written between April 1909 and November 1913, document her
arrival in Wyoming, the purchase and homesteading of her own plot of
land as she continued to work for Stewart, her marriage to Stewart in
1910, and their life together even as she-a stubbornly independent
woman-continued to work her own land. Though not intended originally for
later publication, Stewart's missives are short stories in themselves,
regaling us with joyous tales of a life lived to the fullest, of the
fortunes and misfortunes that abound on the frontier to all who dare to
tame it. A classic of pioneer life, this is a perceptive and enthralling
work.