The Adventures of the Woman Homesteader: The Life and Letters of Elinore Pruitt Stewart [Paperback]

Susanne George Bloomfield (Author)

Book Description

Series: Women in the West | Publication Date: January 1, 1993

Generations of readers have delighted in Elinore Pruitt Stewart's Letters of a Woman Homesteader (1914) and Letters on an Elk Hunt (1915), among the most engaging accounts of life in the American West. Stewart related her adventures on an isolated Wyoming homestead with such vividness, gusto, and sympathy that she has become the woman homesteader. Until now, however, little has been known about her except what she chose to reveal in her published letters.

Old friends and new acquaintances alike will welcome this book combining Stewart's previously unpublished or uncollected letters with Susanne K. George's extensive research. Here is as full and candid a portrait as wella re ever likely to have of The Woman Homesteader: the illness, disappointments, and grinding hard work that lay behind her genial public persona; the family, neighbors, and correspondents who peopled her letter-stories and shared her life.

George has discovered in Elinore Pruitt Stewart a story fully as rewarding as any told by the Woman Homesteader herself. In an afterword George considers Stewart's use of fictional devices and her growth as a writer as well as her place in American letters.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite a life of extreme poverty and hard work homesteading on the Wyoming frontier, Elinore Pruitt Stewart (1876-1933) found time to record her experiences working the land in correspondence to family and friends and to publish it as Letters of a Woman Homesteader in 1914. George, an associate professor of English at the University of Nebraska, has compiled and edited Stewart's unpublished letters and stories together with interesting biographical research. From it, she theorizes that Stewart's published letters were less authentic and more skillfully crafted than thought at the time and that they gave a partially fictionalized picture of frontier life. The letters, which will be of interest to feminist historians, reveal Stewart as a joyful and talented survivor who wrote powerfully, particularly about the natural world, and earned her place in literary history. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Susanne K. George is an associate professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Kearney who specializes in western and women's literature.

Product Details

• Paperback: 218 pages
• Publisher: Bison Books (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803270429
• ISBN-13: 978-0803270428
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #204,050 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Is this woman for real?, March 4, 2005

By 

bitteroldhag (Oklahoma) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Adventures of the Woman Homesteader: The Life and Letters of Elinore Pruitt Stewart (Paperback)

This book chronicles Pruitt's life as a Wyoming homesteader and ranch wife in letters to a former employer and friend. Pruitt is hired as a housekeeper by a Scottish rancher named Stewart in Wyoming, and eventually marries him, but she is determined to homestead her own plot of land, so she claims some land contiguous to her husband's. Mrs. Stewart's letters detail her life on a remote ranch with a great deal of vigor. In fact the word "vigor" seems to characterize Stewart herself who sets off on long jaunts by herself, just to see the countryside. She often takes her children on these trips and when things go wrong, the children and Stewart must rely on the rough kindness of other Wyoming pioneers. Thus, she is saved from a spending a freezing night in the snow by Zebulon Pike and is fed by a disreputable character who turns out to know her husband. She assists at wedding and births, visits the Mormons where she finds the "second" wife is not happy, and generally has a wonderful time in turn-of-the-century Wyoming. Stewart has a marvelous sense of humor, an indomitable spirit and a great love for the beauty of nature. However, she is so relentlessly upbeat that one wonders if she is telling the whole truth. Diaries of other pioneer women reveal a rather different picture of life in the west where women were often left alone for extended periods of time to run the ranch, handle the kids, do all the housework, raise the garden, feed the chickens and livestock and do all the other tasks associated with ranching. Many of these women didn't enjoy settling new country, but Stewart apparently loves it. The root of her optimism is that she is trying to get other women to homestead. Her message seems to be "If I can do it, so can you." Her letters reflect 19th century feminism which not only revolved around suffrage but also taught that women could be independent and successful. With women like Stewart settling the state, it is not surprising that Wyoming was the first state that gave women the right to vote. This book is fun to read and informative though I don't think it represents the experiences of a majority of pioneer women. It, like its author, is iconoclastic in its sheer joie de vivre.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, Informative, and it grows on you., July 5, 2006

By 

Laura Baize "Ancient Book Worm" (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Adventures of the Woman Homesteader: The Life and Letters of Elinore Pruitt Stewart (Paperback)

When I first began this book I was very disappointed. I finally got in far enough to get to the letters. Even if you never read the pages leading up to the letters or the summation at the end, you will gain from reading it. Elinore must have been a great person to know. I felt like I did know her even though it was soon evident that she was coloring up her letters for publication. She kept me reading and I did what I set out to do. I learned about the woman homesteader in the west and her everyday life.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting letters from a woman homesteader, March 14, 2009

By 

Miss Marple - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Adventures of the Woman Homesteader: The Life and Letters of Elinore Pruitt Stewart (Paperback)

This is a good book for anyone interested in reading about life on a Wyoming woman homesteader in the early 1900s. Elinore has a delightful way of expressing herself and her love for others and life comes across in her letters. She was an optimistic person and did not dwell on all the hardships like some others who wrote letters at that time. I genuinely believe she had a different outlook on life and made the best of everything instead of dwelling on the hardships. Many of these letters were not published by any magazine so she "lets her hair down" a bit more than her other two books. She is remarkable at observation and recall and it shows in her writing. Read it for yourself and see if you get caught up in her quaint tones and expressions.