About this item
Discover the stories of twelve women who heard the call to settle the west and who came from all points of the globe to begin their journey. As a slave Clara watched helplessly as her husband and children were sold, only to be reunited with her youngest daughter, as a free woman, six decades later. As a young girl, Charlotte hid her gender to escape a life of poverty and became the greatest stagecoach driver that ever lived. As a Native American, Gertrude fought to give her people a voice and to educate leaders about the ways and importance of America's native people. These are gripping miniature dramas of good-hearted women, selfless providers, courageous immigrants and migrants, and women with skills too innumerable to list. Many were crusaders for social justice and women's rights.
About the Author
I'm Marianne Monson and I primarily write on topics related to women's history during the frontier era. I was raised on pioneer stories by my grandmother and I spent a lot of time as a child dressing up in old fashioned hats and twirling parasols. Beyond my love for the handmade clothing of that era, though, I've come to admire the tough women who survived and thrived in some of the toughest situations possible during America's frontier period. I now enjoy digging through historical archives to find forgotten and overlooked stories of women who have done incredible things. It's very important to me to include a wide diversity of perspectives in any work that I create. So often the voices at the margins and the edges of the dominant narrative have the most powerful stories to tell. If you haven't read my work before and you enjoy nonfiction, you may want to start with Frontier Grit: the Unlikely, True Story of Daring Pioneer Women. You'll find women who traveled every direction--from Mexico they came North, from Native American communities, they were taken East, from Polynesia, they came West. What unites these women is a tremendous amount of grit and tenacity to rise each time they fall. From there, you may want to move onto Women of the Blue and Gray: Mothers, Medics, Soldiers, Spies of the American Civil War. This book examines the roles that women played in the Civil War and will probably challenge the narrative around the war you thought you knew. I tie the political polarization of that era to modern challenges, as we struggle today in the twenty-first century with ever-increasing divisions and polarizations. If you're more interested in diving into a sweeping novel, I hope you'll check out my newest, Her Quiet Revolution: A Novel of Martha Hughes Cannon, Frontier Doctor and First Female Senator. The book is coming out for the 100th anniversary of U.S. Women's suffrage in 2020. Martha's story is an incredible one that begins in Wales, traces her immigration to Utah (burying her father and baby sister along the way) . Martha pioneered in so many arenas--she was one of the first women to graduate with her MD from University of Michigan's medical school, then she went on to run against her husband for election for the Utah State senate. Her personal life was shadowed by the challenges and struggles of her polygamist lifestyle, but her story resonates with many challenges still faced by women today. Martha struggled to balance motherhood and a career, to find meaning in her life after being disappointed in marriage, and she fought to fulfill her dreams and aspirations in a society that doubted her ability to succeed. I'd be honored to count you as a reader. You can find more at www.mariannemonson.com.
