The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America

By Elizabeth Letts

Book Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Horse and The Eighty-Dollar Champion presents a "heartwarming and] engaging folk-hero biography" (Kirkus Reviews) of a woman who fulfilled her lifelong wish to see the Pacific Ocean by riding her horse across America.

" Letts] vividly portrays an audacious woman whose optimism, courage, and good humor are to be marveled at and admired."--Booklist, starred review

In 1954, sixty-three-year-old Maine farmer Annie Wilkins embarked on an impossible journey. She had no money and no family, she had just lost her farm, and her doctor had given her only two years to live. But Annie wanted to see the Pacific Ocean before she died. She ignored her doctor's advice to move into the county charity home. Instead, she bought a cast-off brown gelding named Tarzan, donned men's dungarees, and headed south in mid-November, hoping to beat the snow. Annie had little idea what to expect beyond her rural crossroads; she didn't even have a map. But she did have her ex-racehorse, her faithful mutt, and her own unfailing belief that Americans would treat a stranger with kindness.

Annie, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi, rode straight into a world transformed by the rapid construction of modern highways. Between 1954 and 1956, the three travelers pushed through blizzards, forded rivers, climbed mountains, and clung to the narrow shoulder as cars whipped by them at terrifying speeds. Annie rode more than four thousand miles, through America's big cities and small towns. Along the way, she met ordinary people and celebrities--from Andrew Wyeth (who sketched Tarzan) to Art Linkletter and Groucho Marx. She received many offers--a permanent home at a riding stable in New Jersey, a job at a gas station in rural Kentucky, even a marriage proposal from a Wyoming rancher. In a decade when car ownership nearly tripled, when television's influence was expanding fast, when homeowners began locking their doors, Annie and her four-footed companions inspired an outpouring of neighborliness in a rapidly changing world.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0525619321
• ISBN13: 9780525619321
• Release Date: June 2021
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Great book.

Love stories about horses. Holds your interest. Great story line

If the doctor says you have two years to live, then go live them to the fullest!

The actual story of Annie and her trek across the country in 1954 is truly an adventure. She faces a lot of tribulations along the way, but keeps her resolve to continue, in spite of wishing to return home to Maine. The author includes a lot of history, that can be useful to understand just how difficult this journey was for a woman alone. However, I was alive during the time this was happening, and I felt some of the history got in the way. A friend said her ride was a metaphor for how the country was changing. In that regard, it’s helpful to have the historical context.

The Ride Of Her Life was an interesting read.

It made me saddle up to ride along on this adventure. Interesting read to take you back when life was simpler and people were more welcoming.

The original book

The Last of the Saddle Tramps by Messannie Wilkins written by the woman who actually did it.

Lots of history, more than just the story your expecting

There is so much history from 1950's US mixed into this story. I have to admit I skimmed by most of it just wanting to read the story of her travels, but a very educational book if you absorb the info on every page. A slice of Americana represented in a way seldom seen in literature.