JoAnn Levy, the well-known historian and author of _They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush_, has pieced together for the first time the grand story of two of American history’s forgotten treasures: Eliza Farnham and Georgiana Bruce Kirby. Together they made national headlines with their writings and their beliefs, be they abolitionism, women’s suffrage, Spiritualism, or phrenology. Both were extraordinarily gifted authors; known nationwide in their time, they have since fallen into obscurity. Levy mined extensively their writings, and found gold: Eliza—herself the author of five books—was the first woman to write a book about California, and the letters written by her and Georgiana are full of intelligence and humor.
More than just a history of women in the American frontier, _Unsettling the West_ is the story of a profound friendship. The courage, passion, and wit exhibited by Eliza and Georgiana are surpassed only by their love and respect for one another. These women were at the vanguard of the major social and political movements of their time; they invented identities for themselves that the world had never seen before. They were both oddities and inspirations. In this energetic new book we find ourselves introduced to two characters whose courageous examples we need today more than ever.
