Elinore Pruitt Stewart

Letters of a Woman Homesteader Elinore Pruitt Stewart

ELINORE PRUITT STEWART (1876-1933) caused a literary sensation in 1914 when her Letters of a Woman Homesteader was published. A recent widow and now-single mother to a small daughter, she accepted a job as housekeeper to a wealthy cattleman in Wyoming named Stewart. These letters, written between April 1909 and November 1913, document her arrival in Wyoming, the purchase and homesteading of her own plot of land as she continued to work for Stewart, her marriage to Stewart in 1910, and their life together even as she-a stubbornly independent woman-continued to work her own land. Though not intended originally for later publication, Stewart's missives are short stories in themselves, regaling us with joyous tales of a life lived to the fullest, of the fortunes and misfortunes that abound on the frontier to all who dare to tame it. A classic of pioneer life, this is a perceptive and enthralling work.