Pioneer Women

By Joanna Stratton, Joanna L. Stratton, Arthur M. Jr. ) Stratton, Joanna L. (Introduction By Schlesinger

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671226118
• ISBN13: 9780671226114
• Release Date: January 1981
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 319 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Unbalanced

After reading 900 Miles From Nowhere and Letters Of A Woman Homesteader this book was a huge disappointment. I barely made it through the foreword and 10 pages into the first chapter before becoming nauseated and deciding this was a waste of my time. This book is grossly unbalanced and only has “accounts” written years after the fact of a select few white women who based on their speech were not common folk. The author even admitted to omitting the letters from the more simple folk because it didn’t fit into her vision of the book. The first woman was telling of how she arrived by stage coach and of her demeaning a family from the mountains because their child was ill and it was obvious to her that it was their lack of intelligence and poverty that caused this illness. She went on to say how relieved she was to ride with the driver the next day because of that situation. For me personally I want to know how REAL women survived the frontier. I’m not interested in a bunch of prissy women who equate hardship to riding in a stagecoach with “unsavory” people that aren’t up to their standards. I feel that this book was more about the author bragging about her family’s pedigree than it was about actual frontier life. This country was built on the backs of common folk from all walks of life.

Embracing the Past

Anyone wishing to experience what Pioneer life [on any frontier] was like for their Grandmothers, Great Grandmothers, etc. and their families, this is a must read! There are interesting descriptions of how the Kansas Pioneers built their Sod Homes on the Great Plains. [Pages 54-55]. The description of the Great Blizzard of New Year's Day 1886, that my Grandfather weathered and loved to tell the story [mid Page 92], was an accidental verification I had sought for years. Family researchers might glean some everyday 'Pioneer life' tidbits, tweeked to fit their state's history, to enliven their family stories. Afterall, all of these amazing Pioneer women experienced the same happenings of their day!

It was women like these that made this country strong!

A fast, facinating read. The courage these women had to have just to live day to day, brought tears to my eyes! Without their strength, courage, and resourcefulness the frontier would never have been tamed! This should be required reading for every woman from these United States!Thank you Pioneer Women and thank you Joanna Stratton for sharing these incredible stories!

Haunting

I read this book when it was first published, and then recommended it to friends and, ultimately, passed it on and it has never been returned. Year after year the story comes back to me as one of the finest I have every read. J. Stratton wrote this novel after finding a stash of letters in a family attic, and there's nothing like true life for gripping drama. A gem.

Great book!

Stratton is great at combining research done by the author and first-hand accounts from written diaries and letters. It also has great pictures that give the reader a clear idea of what life was like in the pioneer days. This book makes you want to read and learn more about the little-know lives of pioneer women.