Tomboy Bride [Paperback]

Harriet Fish Backus (Author), Pam Houston (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1980

A true pioneer of the West, Harriet Backus writes about her amusing and often challenging experiences with heart-felt emotion and vivid detail. New foreword by Pam Houston and afterword by author's grandson Rob Walton are featured.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Is a woman's named Hattie's personal account of life in the mining camps of the American West, beginning with her marriage to George and concluding in 1964 when George died, literally in her arms. Tomboy Bride is divided into four parts: The San Juans; Britannia Beach; The Heart of Idaho; and Leadville, City in the Clouds. Tomboy Bride is an engaging from the very start, reading more like a novel than a biography. Tomboy Bride is highly recommended for women's studies and American West reading lists! -- Midwest Book Review

From the Back Cover

"I've often had a fantasy that one day, while cleaning out the barn or digging in the garden, I might uncover a diary or a pack of letters, some written message left from the past that neither time nor weather nor pack rats have carried away. Then I would learn what life was like for the woman who lived on this land a hundred years before me, a woman who was the wife of a rancher or a miner, somebody who believed a good life and untold riches were to be found in this valley tucked under the Continental Divide. Discovering Tomboy Bride was like finding that diary."

Pam Houston, from the foreword

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Pruett Publishing Company; 15th printing edition (January 15, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871085127
• ISBN-13: 978-0871085122
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #308,827 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Grandmother's Book!, September 19, 2002

By 

robwalton (Portland, Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tomboy Bride (Paperback)

...

My grandmother, Harriet Fish Backus, wrote Tomboy Bride. My mother was born in 1909 in Telluride, after her mother came down to the "town" from the Tomboy Gold mine, 2000 feet above Telluride, to give birth to her first child. There are several photos of my mom as a young girl in the book. She typed several early editions of the book on a manual typewriter before it was published. Harriet Fish Backus was a remarkable woman and the afterword that appears in the new version of this book tells about her life after the book. It is still an inspiring story and our family enjoys hearing from interested readers from all over the world.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Reading!, December 24, 1999

By 

Tanya De Leeuw (BC, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tomboy Bride (Paperback)

Although I don't often read autobiographical, historical books, I found this one to be excellent. I was initially drawn to the book because of its content about Britannia Beach, which is not far from where I live. I was delighted to find that I could hardly tear myself away long enough to put the book down, a quality which I have not found in many fictional reads lately! And this despite the fact that the book's content revolves around mining history - not something that I'd put high on my list of interests! Mrs Backus penned an absorbing narrative of her and her family's adventures throughout the Rockies and on the BC coast, and I recommend it highly.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Well Written and Interesting, June 7, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Tomboy Bride (Paperback)

Excellent book about life as it was lived before 1900. Well written couldn't put it down. And, ended up giving it to my grand kids they loved it, from what I understand it is being still lent out to others. Fantastic read, very happy it came back in print again. Books like this are a rare treat.