Waiting On The Bounty: Dust Bowl Diary Mary Dyck [Hardcover]

Pamela Riney-Kehrberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1999

"Though she had only a fifth-grade education, Mary Knackstedt Dyck faithfully kept a diary. Written with pencil on lined notebook paper, her daily notations tell the story of farm life on the far western border of Kansas during the grim Dust Bowl years. Manuscript diaries from this era and region are extremely rare, and those written by farm women are even more so. From the point of view of a wife, mother, and partner in the farming enterprise, Dyck recorded the everyday events as well as the frustrations of living with drought and dust storms and the sadness of watching one's children leave the farm."--BOOK JACKET. "A remarkable historical document, the diary describes a period in this century before the telephone and indoor plumbing were commonplace in rural homes - a time when farm families in the Plains states were isolated from world events and radio provided an enormously important link between farmsteads and the world at large. Waiting on the Bounty brings us unusual insights into the agricultural and rural history of the United States, detailing the tremendous changes affecting farming families and small towns during the Great Depression."--BOOK JACKET.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Dyck (1884-1955) and her husband began farming in southwestern Kansas in 1905. By the 1930s, they were established farmers who managed to keep their farm throughout the Dust Bowl years. In the portion of her diary included here (1936-41), the reader feels her loneliness and frustration with the never-ending dust and chores. But as the text reveals, Dyck also had her pleasures, like listening to the radio. In editing this work, Riney-Kehrberg (Rooted in Dust) has shortened entries and added footnotes but kept the language and spelling of the original. This enhances the picture one gets of Dyck (who spoke German as a child and had a very limited education) but makes it harder to read the diary. Still, this is a valuable record for researchers in the areas of history and women's studies, especially since there is so little information available about women's lives in rural America. Recommended for academic libraries.ALinda L. McEwan, Elgin Community Coll., IL
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A powerful document . . . that provides true insight not only into rural life in Kansas but also into the innermost thoughts and concerns of a farm woman. At the same time, the diary gives an incredibly realistic view of the physical hardships on the Great Plains during the dust storms." -- Dorothy Schwieder, author of Iowa: The Middle Land

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press (November 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877456941
• ISBN-13: 978-0877456940
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,209,294 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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