Danneberg, Julie. Women writers of the West; five chroniclers of the Old West

Kliatt, Nov, 2003 by Edna Boardman

Fulcrum. 88p. illus, bibliog, index, c2003. 1-55591-464-0. $12.95. JS

Five women writers--Jessie Benton Fremont. Louise Clappe. Mary Hallock Foote, Helen Hunt Jackson, and Gertrude Bonnin--are featured here in brief biographies. The style of the book, which entailed a great deal of research, is made up of very short essays, boxes, and a few b/w pictures. The text deals with the lives of the women and includes quotations related to them; it contains only brief excerpts from their actual writing. This arrangement, which deals with short attention spans while endeavoring to impart historical information, sometimes confuses. but the overall picture of each woman comes through in a vivid and lively manner. The choice of personalities includes a genteel, wealthy woman, a business-like young woman who flouted the conventions of the day (which required women to be homemakers), and a Native American woman who, after government boarding school, no longer fit well with her people but helped their cause with her writing. Recommended for classroom use in studies of women, pioneering life in the West, and the power of the written word. Edna Boardman, Bismark, ND